Sister Roma helped build the Giants’ Pride legacy. Now she says they don’t deserve it.
Sister Roma, the legendary San Francisco drag queen and activist, says the Giants organization failed after three players defaced Pride Night caps. She has long been involved with the team to build its Pride Night tradition.
Mark
Sister Roma has spent years helping the San Francisco Giants celebrate Pride.
She wasn’t protesting outside Oracle Park. She wasn’t criticizing the franchise from afar. Alongside fellow drag icon Peaches Christ, the legendary San Francisco drag queen, activist and member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence helped build one of Major League Baseball’s most celebrated Pride traditions.
Today, she’s questioning whether the Giants deserve to be part of it.
To Roma, this wasn’t a controversy over a baseball cap. It was the unraveling of decades of trust between the Giants and one of the most loyal LGBTQ fan bases in men’s professional sports.
While much has been written about three Giants players’ decision to deface the Giants’ Pride cap and the organization’s response, Roma offers a perspective few others can.
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She wasn’t simply attending Pride Night. She helped build it.
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“I’ve loved working with Giants to co-produce their Pride event with my good friend Peaches Christ,” Roma told Outsports. “The LGBTQ employees and our allies in the organization are amazing people who truly want our community to feel seen, appreciated, welcome and celebrated.
“The significance of this special day is huge — not only to loyal Giants fans, but everyone in our community.”
That distinction matters to Roma.
Her criticism isn’t directed at the employees who spent years building bridges between the Giants and the LGBTQ community. It’s directed at the leaders she believes failed to protect those relationships.
When Giants pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker wore the team’s Pride cap and wrote a Bible verse on it, Roma immediately recognized the damage would extend far beyond one night at the ballpark.
“I wasn’t able to be there this year, but I received text messages and screen caps about the incident and my first thought was, ‘Oh no… here we go.'”
Disappointing response
For Roma, the controversy struck at something much larger than a baseball game.
“I am so disappointed that anti-LGBTQ sentiments and homophobia have been revealed, right here in San Francisco, of all places,” she said. “Our community has always considered this place home and served as a beacon to queer and trans people around the world.
“The refusal to acknowledge and support Pride sent a very strong message.”
While the players have described their decision as an expression of their Christian faith, Roma believes the public display of Bible verses on Pride Night carried a different message.
“They have never put a Bible verse on their caps or anywhere else for any other game,” she said. “Proselytizing on a world stage sent a message to the LGBTQ community we are somehow abhorrent or against God’s plan.”
She believes LGBTQ fans understood that message immediately.
“These players wanted the community to know they do not support them, they do not respect them, and they are not welcome on the very night that was designed to celebrate them.”
Those comments echo the frustration Roma expressed in a widely viewed Instagram video in which she called the players “stunt queens” — drag slang for doing something outrageous or provocative to attract attention.
But while the players’ actions ignited the firestorm, Roma believes the Giants’ response transformed it into a crisis of trust.
Following the incident, many fans expected the organization to unequivocally reaffirm its commitment to the LGBTQ community. Instead, President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey declined multiple opportunities to directly address the controversy.
For Roma, that silence spoke volumes.
“The Giants organization has refused to address this further and suggests that fans ‘move on.’ Well that doesn’t fly in San Francisco.”
She believes leadership fundamentally misunderstood what was at stake.
For Roma, the issue isn’t simply that the Giants declined to revisit the controversy. It’s that the organization underestimated what Pride Night represents in San Francisco.
After years of asking LGBTQ fans to view the Giants as allies, she believes leadership treated this breach of trust as if it were just another public relations challenge.
“This lack of accountability and support cuts deep with LGBTQ Giants fans and our community at large,” she said. “Unfortunately, many fans will indeed move on — away from supporting the team they love — but I don’t think this will go away any time soon.”
Roma’s strongest criticism isn’t reserved for the three Giants players. It’s directed at the franchise itself.
The Giants have spent years positioning themselves as one of Major League Baseball’s strongest allies to the LGBTQ community.
‘This is not about religious freedom’
Roma believes that legacy comes with a responsibility to stand with the very community the organization has spent decades asking to trust it.
“Until the Giants come out with a strong message in support of the LGBTQ community, I don’t think they will be welcome at Pride.”
She also rejects the argument that criticism of the players somehow infringes on religious freedom.
“This is not about religious freedom. No one in the LGBTQ community is denying their right to worship or believe whatever they choose. All we were hoping is that for one night, our team could support us in a world where queer and trans people are under attack every other day of the year.”
For Roma, the issue was never about a baseball cap. It was about trust.
Whether the Giants choose to rebuild that trust remains to be seen.
Roma believes it won’t happen through silence, another Pride giveaway or a carefully crafted statement. It will require leadership willing to acknowledge why so many LGBTQ fans feel abandoned by a franchise they once viewed as one of professional sports’ strongest allies.
Her final message, however, is not for Buster Posey, Giants executives or the players. It is for all the LGBTQ people who may have questioned whether they still belong or matter.
“You are perfect the way you are, you are loved, and you deserve to feel respected and welcome everywhere. Never let anything dim your light or steal your PRIDE.”
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