I say it's about time for the MLB to do this.
From ThinkProgress LGBT:
Major League Baseball announced today that its new Collective Bargaining Agreement will prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The NFL made the same change back in September. While the protections don’t automatically change the atmosphere of locker rooms, it ensures that should a player come out, his career will not be in jeopardy. There are currently no openly gay baseball players in the MLB.
Joe.My.God. points out that the San Francisco Giants became the first professional sports team to make an “It Gets Better” video this past June. Many other baseball teams have followed suit, including the Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore Orioles, and Tampa Bay Rays.
The Dallas Voice:
Major League Baseball is set to ban anti-gay discrimination as part of a new collective bargaining agreement to be released today, following a request from Resource Center Dallas.
Last month, after the National Football League added sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy, Resource Center’s Rafael McDonnell penned a letter to MLB Commissioner Bud Selig calling for pro baseball to follow suit.
Major League Baseball, which saw Jackie Robinson break the color barrier in 1947, Tuesday will announce incremental progress in another civil rights issue. The new collective bargaining agreement adds “sexual orientation” to its section on discrimination, a person with direct knowledge of the agreement told the Daily News.
Article XV, Section A of the MLB’s expiring Basic Agreement, in effect from 2006-2011, states: “The provisions of this Agreement shall be applied to all Players covered by this Agreement without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.”
McDonnell has also written a letter to the National Basketball Association calling for the NBA to ban anti-gay discrimination, but he said he has yet to receive a response.
Major League Soccer added sexual orientation protections in 2004, while the National Hockey League did so in 2005.
My sports blog at Tumblr (also reblogged at my main Tumblr blog, Justin's Political Corner) gives my take on how the homophobes will react?
Who wants to be that the anti-LGBTQ homophobic lobby (such as AFA, FRC, FotF, NOM) will claim that the “‘homosexual activist agenda’ has taken over the MLB?” I bet that will happen, if it already hasn’t.