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Giants adopt rainbow avatar in support of gay marriage

Mike Oz

The San Francisco Giants weren't the only ones on the Internet to adopt a rainbow avatar Friday. Many people, organizations and corporations — including @Yahoo — did so after the Supreme Court ruling that made gay marriage legal across the land.

But of the 30 MLB teams, only the Giants switched to a rainbow avatar. The Golden State Warriors, the Giants' Bay Area neighbors, were the only other team in the NFL, NBA or NHL to adopt the rainbow avatar.

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For the Giants, it makes sense for an obvious reason: San Francisco is one of the more liberal cities in the nation and that's no secret. But Friday is also the Giants' annual Pride Night at AT&T Park, which it turns out was incredibly well timed.

Showing such a public support of gay marriage can be rough for a sports team. Some fans don't like politics mixed with their games and have no problem saying so. The Giants know this well, since they're on their 13th annual pride night, but they remain upfront about their stance. Major League Baseball, by the way, does not require its approval for avatar changes.

"The response has been mostly positive," Bryan Srabian, the club's director of digital media, told Yahoo Sports. "We do get some negative feedback when we chime off topic (baseball), but our fans have always been very, very supportive of our efforts in the LGBT community."

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If you look at the team's Facebook, Instagram or Twitter accounts, you'll see some of the typical knee-jerk comment about gay marriage. You've seen it before online, you'll see it again and you'll even see it in the comment section of this very post. No surprise there.

Less-than-happy responses about the avatar change didn't dissuade the Giants' Twitter account from sending out the following a few hours before Friday night's game:

"Our tag line is #WeAreSF #WeAreGiant," Srabian told Yahoo Sports. "We represent all of our community and have been doing so for many years. Before today's announcement."

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!