Almost 23,000 fans attended Oriole Park at Camden Yards for the Baltimore Orioles’ sixth annual LGBTQ Pride Night on Wednesday.
Tra Wilson, Chief Director of Special Events for the Pride Center of Maryland and Baltimore Pride, wants the special theme night to grow even larger in the future with increased collaboration between the team and Baltimore Pride.
“We don’t specifically organize the event, but we are a trusted partner,” Wilson said. “We actually had a meeting about becoming more of a collaborative effort and becoming more of a partner. I think a lot of organizations in Baltimore lack true partnership…. so what we’re trying to do is change that.”
Pride Night has become an annual tradition celebrating and recognizing Baltimore’s LGBTQ+ communities. The Orioles’ first Pride Night was June 27, 2018. Fans could purchase a special Pride Night ticket package, which included a ticket to the game and an O’s Pride hat.
Six iterations later, the team handed out Orioles Pride replica jerseys for the first 15,000 fans Wednesday night. Fans also got to try special menu items, participate in themed activities, and listen to music from DJ Rosie Hicks.
“What we realized quickly is that the demand to celebrate Pride in a larger form was there,” said Baltimore Orioles Vice President of Communications Jennifer Grondahl. “We wanted to expand to be inclusive to everybody in the ballpark.”
Acknowledging the tremendous growth, Wilson hopes that next year, and in future years, there is more collaboration between Baltimore Pride and the Orioles. He wants to see the theme night scheduled for a weekend game and more mid-inning entertainment.
All six of the team’s Pride Nights have occurred in the middle of the week, with four of them happening on Wednesday nights. The Orioles became the 24th Major League Baseball team to hold a Pride Night, according to the Baltimore Sun.
For the second consecutive year, the Orioles played the Texas Rangers on Pride Night. The Rangers are the only team out of 30 Major League Baseball teams to not hold a Pride Night.
“It’s coincidence,” said Grondahl. “We’ve done the Pride night around this exact same time every year, and it’s just the way the schedule lines up. So, it doesn’t matter who the opponent is next year, we’ll continue to have Pride at the Yard and continue to celebrate it on and off the field.”
Orioles staff members, including The Oriole Bird, marched in this year’s Pride Parade. When asked about holding the game closer to the Baltimore Pride festival, Grondahl said she is unsure if it is a possibility. “I don’t know if that’s something that we would explore in the future, but it’s certainly always worthy of a conversation,” she said.
Baltimore Pride served as a “brainstorm partner,” helping the Orioles get the right people involved and be “culturally competent,” said Wilson, who threw out the first pitch Wednesday night.
The Orioles sold special rainbow-themed merchandise and food options, including kettle corn, cake, Dippin’ Dots and gelati. Fans also had the chance to make friendship bracelets, get temporary tattoos, take pictures in a photo booth, and get their faces painted.
Reality show star and LGBTQ+ advocate Kariselle Snow sang the National Anthem before the game.
“You don’t necessarily even need to be a baseball fan to think this is a wonderful place to go and to feel comfortable,” Grondahl said. “We all have a common cause, and that we all want to see winning baseball.”
Grondahl is unsure what the 2026 iteration of Pride Night will look like, but the team is expected to get a new video board and sound system next season as part of their ongoing efforts to improve game presentation.
“I would like to see all the stands filled,” Wilson said. “I would like to see a lot of organizations, a lot of these nonprofit organizations and small businesses coming out to table, coming out to show support.”
