Cardinals: Dodging Issue of Gays on Kiss Cam Since 2006

Unfit for public consumption?

Unfit for public consumption?

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The Post-Dispatch this morning takes on the topic of "Kiss Cams" -- the stadium pastime that places couples on the JumboTron with the expectation that they smooch.

At issue: Will the Cardinals place a same-sex couple on the Kiss Cam this weekend when the team hosts "Out at the Ballpark" with the LGBT organization Pride St. Louis?

Team officials aren't saying yea or nay. "Our stance is, we'll put you on the request list, no guarantees," Tony Simokaitis, Cardinals director of scoreboard operations, tells the daily.

Riverfront Times got a similarly evasive answer when we asked the organization the same question in 2006.

Back then we were reporting how other organizations (but not the Cardinals) were hosting "gay days" at the ballpark. This year represents the first time the Cardinals have teamed up with Pride St. Louis, which will receive a mention on the scoreboard Saturday.

But some say that's not enough, they want same-sex couples included in Kiss Cam -- especially after an alleged slight Sunday at the Rams game when two men in Arizona Cardinals jerseys were placed on the JumboTron as a joke during the Kiss Cam segment. The men were greeted by a chorus of heckles and boos.

Harrison Roberts, a bartender at Just John's in the Grove Neighborhood, is now spearheading the effort to get same-sex couple on Kiss Cam this weekend at Busch Stadium. "This literally came about because our community was mocked on the Kiss Cam by the Rams," Roberts tells the Post-Dispatch.