Texas Rangers gay event targeted for protest (9792)

Members of Dallas's gay and lesbian volleyball league, its gay rugby team, its gay softball leagues, and the Texas Gay Rodeo Association are scheduled to attend a Texas Rangers baseball game on September 14, and that has antigay fans of the Major League Baseball team screaming foul, the Fort Worth Star Telegram reports.

The gay athletes are attending the game as part of a fund-raising event sponsored by the Rangers, where the team sells tickets at a reduced rate to community groups and the groups resell the tickets for a profit. And Rangers representatives are careful to say that September 14 is far from a sanctioned "Gay Days" event at the ballpark. Nevertheless, news of the gay athletes' plans to attend the game has caused some fans to launch a Web site in opposition, www.protestgayday.com.

"This is a family event," said protest organizer Rick Warden, who told the Star Telegram that he doesn't expect the team to bar gay people from the ballpark but that he does expect them to refrain from facilitating what he calls "the gay agenda of normalization."

"The Texas Rangers should be ashamed," the Web site states. "This event legitimizes the perverted gay and lesbian lifestyle in the eyes of the unsuspecting innocent child."