(AP) – This summer, as thousands of members of the GLBT community flock to Toronto for their annual Gay Pride Festival, hometown team the Blue Jays will invite the community to come out to the old ball game. On Friday, June 25, the Jays will host the Montreal Expos for what is being billed as Gay Community Day at the SkyDome.

The date coincides with Gay Pride Week in Toronto, which culminates on June 27 with the annual Gay Pride Parade, one of the largest gay pride festivals in North America.

“I think it’s long overdue that we invite the gay community to partake and be involved with the Blue Jays, to encourage them to come to the ball park,” Paul Godfrey, president and CEO of the Jays, said to the Associated Press. “It’s not only reaching out to the community, it’s recognizing that this is a way of life in the year 2004.”

The idea originated in the group sales office and was quickly supported by Godfrey.

“We’re making a first entry into the gay community to show our support to them to indicate we’d like them to come to the ball game and support what’s going on,” he said.

While other sports organizations are more than comfortable with openly embracing the gay community, particularly the LPGA Tour and the women’s professional tennis tour, both of which have had a number of their players come out publicly, it is still a taboo subject in the macho world of men’s team sports.

“It’s ground breaking as far as sports in Toronto is concerned and I think it’s long overdue,” Godfrey said. “I think that hopefully Torontonians have progressed to the point where it is viewed as a very legitimate participation group in the community and we want to make sure that they know that we recognize them, that sports is not the ‘macho’ thing to do and is open to everybody.”

Godfrey said the group tickets will be discounted and the service fee portion of the tickets sold will be donated back to the gay community.

Organizers of the Gay Pride festival will promote the game at various gay bars and clubs throughout the city. The game also received Pride Status, which is a designation by the organizers of the festival that the game is an official Pride event.

While Toronto’s GLBT community is applauding the Jays for their support, the event is considered a controversial one by the team’s more conservative fans and could create a backlash.

“I’m not concerned,” Godfrey said. “We’re not a homophobic organization. As far as I’m concerned sports teams should have broken down these barriers several years ago. It’s never too late. It’s time to do it.”

The Jays are considering an on-field recognition before the game that is still in the planning stages.

“I’m not concerned about people being upset,” Godfrey said. “If some people are so homophobic that they’re upset, too bad. It’s a changing world.”