New York Mets announce end to kiss cam joke fans deemed ‘homophobic’

In May, the Los Angeles Dodgers featured a same-sex couple sharing a genuine kiss, prompting cheers throughout the stadium. Now they’re cleaning up in-game entertainment so fans won’t want to leave.

He continued sending messages to the team on social media every time he saw it repeated.

“The most charitable thing to say is it’s a junior high gay joke,” Bednarsh said in a phone interview Wednesday. The Mets would also sometimes show players from opposing baseball teams inside the heart graphic as a joke, often drawing laughs from the crowd.

The Mets said they plan to continue to include kiss cam in games but it will only highlight couples. “While meant to be lighthearted, we unintentionally offended some”, the Mets said in a release, via New York magazine. I think that not showing players as a joke, not showing the idea that two male athletes would be gay as a joke, is a huge first step. “Our organization is wholly supportive of fostering an inclusive and respectful environment at games”‘. The Mets were accused of being homophobic, imbecilic, and told to “grow the f*** up”.

The kiss cam ordeal seems to be uncharacteristic for the Mets who were paid a visit from the league’s first ambassador for inclusion, , during spring training in March. The credit here goes to Bednarsh for getting pro sports team to stop doing something that was outdated and offensive.

A few months after training with Bean, the Mets are reacting to calls of homophobia in a responsible manner.

On Thursday, Bednarsh appeared on HuffPost Live’s “Queerview”, where host Josh Zepps told him the Mets had capitulated.