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More than 1,100 gay and lesbian sports fans turned out at RFK Stadium Tuesday night to see the Washington Nationals shut out the Colorado Rockies.
Taking over a large section of seats in the upper deck behind home plate, the jubilant participants in the city’s first gay “Night Out” at the ballpark basked in the Nationals’ 4-0 victory, with some boasting that their presence helped break a losing streak that threatened to end the team’s hold on first place.
“It’s awesome,” said Brent Minor, president of Team D.C., an umbrella organization of gay and lesbian sports teams that sponsored the gay Night Out event.
“We didn’t even know if we’d sell the first 150 tickets,” Minor said, while standing on the field before the game. “We are stunned. We have over 1,100 people here.”
The stadium announcer introduced Minor and Team D.C. board member Mike Stebbins during a brief ceremony on the field before the start of the game.
At least seven Major League Baseball teams were scheduled to host a “gay night” event this year at their respective stadiums.
In the case of the Washington Nationals, Team D.C. took part in the Nationals’ group sales program, which encourages civic, sports, and other D.C. area groups to buy a block of tickets at a discounted price.
Although the Nationals didn’t officially sponsor the gay night event, Nationals spokesperson Chartese Berry said the team welcomed Team D.C.’s involvement in the group sales program and provided the gay sports group with the same privileges and recognition accorded all other groups that sell a large block of tickets.
The privileges included the ceremony introducing Minor and Stebbins, which took place on the field behind home plate. The ceremony began with an announcement of Team D.C.’s presence over the stadium’s public address system. Stadium officials also projected the Team D.C. name on the stadium’s large scoreboard and broadcast the ceremony on a large television screen, but incorrectly listed the group as “D.C. Team.”
“We call your attention to the field,” said the announcer. He described Minor and Stebbins as representatives of Team D.C., and said the group represents “gay and lesbian sports clubs.”
A few boos could be heard from nearby seats. But most of the sparse crowd cheered politely as Minor and Stebbins waved their arms in recognition of the introduction.
The ceremony took place about 6:40 p.m., at a time when most of the announced crowd of 30,655 had not arrived for the game, which was scheduled to begin at 7:05 p.m. The sections in the upper deck where the gay fans were seated were mostly empty during the ceremony.
That didn’t faze Minor, who called the event historic for D.C.’s gay sports fans.
“They welcomed us here with open arms,” he said of the Washington Nationals’ staff and public affairs office. “It’s a great night for baseball, a great night for Washington, and a great night for Team D.C.”
Among those attending with gay fans were D.C. Councilmember Carol Schwartz (R-At-Large) and Montgomery County Councilmember Howie Denis (R-At-Large).
“Let it be known that the only two elected officials here tonight are Republicans,” Schwartz said.
D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams (D), who was in Hawaii this week, turned over use of the mayor’s front-row, mezzanine-level box seating area to Team D.C. for the event, said Clark Ray, a gay member of the D.C. Sports & Entertainment Commission, which manages RFK Stadium.
Bree Wagner, director of group sales for the Nationals, said that as of Tuesday morning, 1,139 people bought tickets for Team D.C.’s gay ‘Night Out’ event. She said an association of Little League teams sold 8,000 seats for a single game and the Washington Post hosted an event that sold about 6,000 seats, making those two events the largest of the group sales so far. But she called the Team D.C. event “highly successful” for breaking the 1,000 ticket mark.
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