That’s a photo from last night’s Pride celebration at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., as Nancy Pelosi threw the ceremonial first pitch. Many conservative wags are enjoying themselves, like “Not the Bee,” which mocked, “The Washington National’s baseball team hosted a Pride Night …of course, they had some buffoonish drag queen show up to toss the first pitch. Oh, wait- I’m being told it’s Nancy Pelosi…Fives of people applauded wildly…”

Observations:

1. Almost nobody is going to Nats games these days. The team, though better than predicted, is going to have a losing season; it traded away virtually all of its stars over the past several years; the team is being sold, the manager is a stiff, and the Nationals have a very disappointed and angry fan base right now. People go to baseball games to see baseball, not celebrate events.

2. It might seem a bit strange that the same week D.C. Mayor Bowser, probably fourth or fifth on the list of the most incompetent, hyper-partisan big city mayors in the U.S., declared that the city was “the gayest city” in America,” such a sparse crowd would show up to celebrate “Pride Night.” It’s not strange at all, though. I don’t know what the intersection of the Venn diagram circles representing baseball fans and LGTBQ personages is, but I’m guessing it’s not that large. There are still no openly gay MLB players, and I assume gays are smart enough to know an obvious and cynical pandering effort when they see one. There are also a substantial number of baseball fans who, given 81 home games to choose from, no shortage of tickets and obscene ticket prices that even keep me away, might choose not to attend a particular game where their presence will be taken (by some) to indicate endorsement of child genital mutilation, biological males clobbering women in female athletic competitions, and Bud Light.

3. Only the Texas Rangers among MLB teams have refused to yield to pressure to hold a “Pride Night.” Good for them. The whole Pride Month phenomenon is oppressive now, and I see no justification for sports teams to be holding special celebrations of non-conforming sexual proclivities and practices.

4. I get the concept, I do: gays and gay couples have been discriminated against, demonized and abused for centuries, they have every right, the same rights as anyone else, to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; they should be judged on the content of their character; they should be able to marry the one they love; and presumptions of bad motives and bad character inflicted on them by bias, ignorance and bigotry are unethical, cruel and wrong. So, finally, the pendulum has swung and “Pride’ nights, “Pride Month,” rainbow flags and attendant foofaraw are ways of saying, at last, “you’re OK,” “we were assholes,” and “Sorry!” It’s a form of cultural reparations.

5. Nevertheless, the overkill is ultimately divisive and counter-productive.