After the Oakland Athletics became the first professional sports team in America to host a gay pride night, the New York Mets are doing the same. This August, the team will host an "LGBT Night" at Citi Field to celebrate inclusion and diversity, while also raising awareness of rampant bullying of LGBT youth.
According to the LGBT Network, 82 percent of LGBT youth suffer from bullying in some form. A portion of the proceeds from that night's game will go toward the Safe Schools Initiative, which combats bullying, as well as to the LGBT Pride Network.
A to-be-announced concert will also follow the baseball game.
The Mets' leadership in LGBT inclusion might be partially motivated by a controversy from last season involving former MLB outfielder Billy Bean, who came out as gay after his career. Bean is now the MLB Ambassador for Inclusion, and when he visited the Mets last year, Daniel Murphy said he disagreed with Bean's lifestyle.
Murphy, whose power hitting fueled the Mets' run to the World Series, is now with the Nationals. But the Mets still recognize the value in tackling this issue.
