Woman Says Dodgers Stadium Security Made Her Cover Up a Uterus T-Shirt

A woman attending one of the Los Angeles Dodgers’s last home games of the season was told to cover up a pro-choice shirt featuring a uterus, she says, or face being thrown out of the stadium.

Haley Pollock, 34, told Jezebel that she attended Friday’s baseball game with her boyfriend, a season ticket holder. She has attended games at the stadium regularly for the past six years and has never been stopped by a guard for her clothing, she said.

But on Friday evening, according to Pollock, a security guard scanned her ticket and then called out, “Hey we got one over here, we got one!” signaling another man to approach her. In the middle of the floor, the men asked her to open her jacket.

Pollock was wearing a white T-shirt featuring the text “No Country For Old Men” wrapped around an image of a uterus, a pro-choice message against Republicans who are blocking abortion access.

The security guards did not pull her aside for privacy, explain any policy, or invite a female guard to review her attire, Pollock says.“They’re both just leering at me,” she said. “I was completely blown away that what he asked me to do was to open my jacket in front of him.”

At first, Pollock thought the guard had misinterpreted an anti-Nazi pin on her jacket as a swastika, and was raising an objection to that. Then, she says, they told her that in order to enter, she needed to wear a jacket over her shirt.

“I was just kind of dumbfounded. And the guy just said, ‘You need to keep your jacket on if you want to be left in the stadium.’”

“My options at that point were: make a scene, say something, get my boyfriend kicked out of the last game that he wants to see so badly, or comply. What am I going to do?”

Lauren Douglas, a PR representative for the Los Angeles Dodgers, confirmed over the phone that the stadium does not have a dress code policy. “We don’t have a dress code for fans,” Douglas said. “We won’t turn anyone away if they’re wearing a certain shirt or anything like that.”

Douglas did not respond to Jezebel’s subsequent email request for comment on Pollock’s specific complaint.

However, less than two hours after Jezebel contacted the Dodgers inquiring about their dress code policy, Pollock said that Michelle Darringer, Risk Manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers, responded to Pollock’s Friday complaint via email and phone and offered a link to the “Fan Code of Conduct,” which prohibits “obscene or indecent clothing.” She noted that she was reviewing Pollock’s complaint. Darringer did not immediately respond to Jezebel’s request for comment on the nature of the shirt or for clarification between the two stated policies.

“These two guys are making a completely subjective call on what I’m wearing,” said Pollock, reacting to the incident. “All around me, there’s women sexualizing their breasts—totally appropriate. But me having a picture saying stop governing my body, not alright.”

“If I had a picture of a brain on my chest, is than an issue? If I had a picture of a femur on my chest, would that be an issue?” she asked.

“The best part was, my jacket is a Misfits album cover with a picture of John F. Kennedy getting shot by the bullet that killed him with his head exploding. Cool, so a picture depicting gun violence towards a president is totally acceptable. An image of a reproductive organ on my shirt, “ she said, “is not okay.”