The league mentioned Liam Hendriks' LGBTQ support in each of the past three years but got cold feet in 2025.
Ken Schultz at Outsports:
I’m going to set the over/under of number of words in that sentence before you picture Liam Hendriks at 12. Indeed, with seven nominations, Hendriks is mentioned in connection with the Clemente Award as often as Shohei Ohtani is with the MVP. As one of MLB’s most longstanding and respected LGBTQ allies, this isn’t a surprise to any baseball fan from our community. Hendriks not only speaks out on behalf of LGBTQ rights but backs up his words with actions like hosting teenagers from Chicago’s Howard Brown Health Center during his stint with the White Sox and riding on the Red Sox float during Boston’s Pride for the People Parade. But as baseball writer Jen Ramos-Eisen discovered when Hendriks became the Red Sox nominee for the 2025 Clemente Award, MLB’s website neglected to mention any LGBTQ outreach in the bio they wrote about him this year. In each of the three previous seasons, Hendriks’ Clemente Award bio included phrases like “He and his wife, Kristi, have also remained vocal supporters of the LGBTQ+ community,” “time spent organizing the White Sox’ Pride Night as a vocal supporter of the LGBTQ+ community,” and “He is a staunch ally of the LGBTQ+ community.” But in 2025, there is nary a mention of his LGBTQ+ support. [...] Sadly, this comes as no surprise to any baseball watcher in 2025. With the current administration trying to inflict itself on every facet of our lives, MLB’s approach to civil rights issues of all kinds can best be summed up as “let’s erase anything ‘woke’ and hope no one in The White House notices us.” This has manifested itself in a series of shameful capitulations from MLB’s website scrubbing the word “diversity” from its DEI page to the league editing out Vin Scully’s “A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol” call from its Henry Aaron All-Star Game celebration.
[...] Thankfully, the Red Sox themselves did the bare minimum and acknowledged that their LGBTQ fans still exist. When the team held a pregame ceremony to announce Hendriks’ nomination at Fenway Park, PA announcer Henry Mahegan intoned, “We are proud to recognize the Red Sox nominee, who supports cancer research, LGBTQ rights…”
What a disgraceful move! MLB omits Liam Hendriks’ LGBTQ+ advocacy in his Roberto Clemente Award bio that was previously added, thanks to the Trump Regime’s assault on DEI and LGBTQ+ rights.
Thankfully, the Red Sox continued to make reference to Hendriks’ LGBTQ+ advocacy.
