06/18/2026
We are honored to offer our communication opinions on the San Francico San Francisco Giants Pride Day controversy.
SF CHRONICLE Story:
When San Francisco communications veteran Sam Singer learned that four Giants pitchers had protested Pride during a game last week, he immediately, and correctly, anticipated a national public relations crisis.
The protest involved rainbow game caps that the team donned for Friday’s Pride Night event. Three players — Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker — took the field with Bible verses written on their caps. The Bible verse, “Gen 9:12-16,” has been used by some Christians as a way to claim the rainbow symbol that is widely identified with the LGBTQ+ community. A fourth player, Sam Hentges, did not wear the hat at all.
“I could see this was immediately going to become part of the Trump White House culture war,” said Singer, president of San Francisco’s Singer Associates Public Relations. “It was a very unfortunate mistake.”
And become part of the culture war it did.
After Major League Baseball issued a warning to three of the players about their violation of the league’s uniform policy, Vice President JD Vance posted on X, “Trump won, we don’t have to do this anymore.” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, wrote a letter to the league’s commissioner expressing concern over what he saw as a “pattern of discrimination” against Christian players.
Meanwhile, California state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco and the current frontrunner for Nancy Pelosi’s seat in the House of Representatives, called on the team’s leadership to “do better.” He accused team leadership of “tolerating” the players’ choice in a statement on social media.
Singer, who briefly represented the Giants during their move from Candlestick Park two decades ago, said team leadership made its first misstep when it allowed the four players to stage the Pride Night protest at all.
“I would have made them wear the official hat,” Singer said. “That’s number one. Number two, I would have issued an immediate apology. There’s just no excuse for that.”
Team manager Tony Vitello has tried to dodge discussion of the controversy, telling reporters this week that it “hasn’t been in my world.” The Giants issued a statement the day after the incident, apologizing for the “pain and anger” the protest caused and affirming the team’s “commitment to inclusion, belonging and creating a welcoming environment for all.”
Singer called that statement “too public relations-y.” He would have advised the Giants to prioritize a “heartfelt” recognition of how the incident alienated their LGBTQ+ fans. Ideally, he said, that recognition should come from the players themselves instead of the team’s front office.
Singer represented the San Francisco 49ers in 2002, when running back Garrison Hearst used a homophobic slur in an interview and said he would not accept a gay teammate.
“I woke up that morning, I read it in the Chronicle, and I picked up the phone and immediately called the York family that owns the team and Coach Steve Mariucci,” Singer said. “I said, ‘Hey, we can’t have this happen. This player and this organization needs to apologize immediately.’”
Hearst apologized in an emotional news conference, telling reporters, “I know that I was wrong saying what I said about anybody.” The address was preceded by apologies from the team’s coach and owners.
That’s not what happened in this case. Instead, the players involved have justified their own actions in the wake of the protest.
Hentges, who was the first Giants player to eschew the Pride Night hat since the team began the tradition in 2021, said that championing the LGBTQ+ community with the cap was “something that I feel like I was forced to support when I don’t morally support it.” Roupp told reporters that the Bible verse he referenced was “just kind of something I believe in and I stand firm in.”
The Giants left the city as the discourse metastasized, hitting the road for games in Atlanta and Miami. When they return to Oracle Park on Tuesday, they’ll face the ire of fans who were hurt by the players’ protest and the team’s stilted response.
Now, Singer recommends the team prepare the involved players to start an “apology tour,” meeting publicly and privately with LGBTQ+ leaders in the city.
“I bet dollars to donuts that those players will ultimately make some sort of statement that apologizes for this — that they had no idea the hurt that this would cause San Francisco Giants fans,” Singer said. “The team’s trying to do the right thing. Those players need to step up to the plate and do the right thing now, too.”
San Francisco communications expert Sam Singer said Giants leadership made its first misstep when it allowed four players to stage a Pride Night protest.
