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New York Mets outfielder Mark Canha celebrates Pride Night with Madonna, Gaga & Taylor Swift

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Mark Canha is ready to bop.

The New York Mets outfielder celebrated the team’s annual Pride Night by changing his walk-up songs to gay pop anthems. His playlist–Madonna, Whitney, Diana, Gaga and Taylor–would’ve been welcome at any bar in Hell’s Kitchen. But on Friday night, our favorite pop divas were heard throughout Citi Field.

When Canha was coming out, he wanted the gays to know. (Last season, Canha also walked out to Madonna, Gage and Diana.)

One of the most outspoken LGBTQ+ allies in baseball, Canha was the face of the Mets’ Pride Night festivities. Prior to the game, he recorded a video message explaining why the event is so important to him.

“Pride Month is just a really important and fun time for me personally,” he said. “I think Pride Night is really fun and festive, and I love celebrating our LGBTQ+ community. It’s a community I have a soft spot for, and will always support.”

Given the increased blowback to Pride festivities across pro sports, it’s uplifting to see a straight ally stand so firmly with the LGBTQ+ community. Canha’s message to the bigots is loud and clear: you need to calm down!

Last year, Canha opened up about his relationship with the LGBTQ+ community, and why there’s a dearth of allies in MLB. Though players hail from an international array of locations, most of them embody similar traits.

“Baseball is an extreme example of a sample group,” he said, via SNY. “It’s a very different place from anywhere else. You have people from different places, geographically and culturally, but it’s also a similar age group, demographic and a similar education-level demographic. There are a lot of factors that make a baseball locker room what it is. It’s a pretty small sample of America, so I don’t know if you can gauge the temperature of the country based on what’s going on in a baseball clubhouse.”

As a Bay Area native, Canha said it was a culture shock when he first stepped inside an MLB locker room.

“It is so much different from what I was used to, and it was a wake-up call,” he said. “[Where I came from], you would be in the minority if you weren’t an ally to the LGBTQ+ community. So I was working under the assumption that young people in their 20s and 30s are all on that side. And then you get here and you quickly realize, ‘Oh, okay, that’s not the case.’”

It’s been a mixed Pride season for MLB. In an apparent attempt to protect homophobes, commissioner Rob Manfred said last week the league discouraged teams from placing Pride logos on their uniforms this season. Multiple players have also spoken out against LGBTQ+ initiatives and Pride-related celebrations.

No club has experienced more blowback than the Los Angeles Dodgers, who came under fire for their plans to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at their Pride event. The Dodgers briefly capitulated to the performative outrage before reversing course and re-inviting the Sisters. They honored them over the weekend.

While religious groups protested the Sisters prior to game time, they received their Community Hero award, and the event went off without a hitch. In fact, every player on the field wore a rainbow-logo hat, including Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, who was one of the players who originally protested the Sisters’ inclusion.

Unlike in the NHL, where players across the league refused to wear rainbow warmup jerseys last season and were often shielded from questions, MLB players espousing anti-gay beliefs have faced repercussions. Former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass shared social media posts supporting the boycotts of Bud Light and Target, only to get booed out of the ballpark.

The right-hander was released hours before the Blue Jays’ Pride Night, following a vapid apology tour.

The Boston Red Sox called up an anti-gay pitcher days before their Pride Night, and wound up cutting him, too.

Canha, for his part, says he can’t understand why people don’t support the LGBTQ+ community, or any marginalized group.

“It is really hard for me to understand how you can not say you’re an LGBTQ+ ally, just in the same way that you can say you’re not a feminist if you know what the definition of a feminist is,” he said. “How can you say you’re not a feminist? The way I was raised was to be nice to everybody.”

Amen to that. While the Mets enjoyed a well-deserved victory on Pride Night, Canha’s message of inclusion was the best thing to happen at Citi Field Friday.

It doesn’t hurt that he has great taste in music, either.

Scroll down for reaction to Canha’s awesome Pride Night anthems…

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