CHICAGO — When it comes to baseball and LGBTQ+ inclusivity, Billy Bean often flashes back to his playing days.

Ending his career without telling his parents about his life as a closeted gay ballplayer. Shielding his secret from teammates like Brad Ausmus and Torey Lovullo. The regret of not sharing his “full self,” he says.

It’s a message Bean has delivered in clubhouses, and it resonates with today’s ballplayers: hyper-focused on staying in the majors, and being a good teammate. It’s also the lens through which Bean views baseball’s ongoing LGBTQ+ issues.

“There’s some parts of my job where I feel like some days I just, you know, I’m floating,” said Bean, a senior vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion with Major League Baseball. “Then there’s other days when I see some pushback, I’m reminded that we have 8,000 human beings connected to the sport as an athlete in one way or another, and you’re not going to always have 100% of those people agree on the same thing.”

That friction has been on display in recent seasons as MLB teams court the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month, simultaneously showing how much has changed and how much remains the same within the National Pastime — a sport with a strong connection to segments of the U.S. and Latin America where many view homosexuality as a sin.

Almost 80 years after Jackie Robinson broke the majors’ color barrier in a landmark moment for the American Civil Rights Movement, the dueling expressions of LGBTQ+ support and pop-up opposition recalled the question of when MLB might welcome its first active openly gay player — a barrier already cleared by the NBA and NFL.

“If somebody in here called a meeting and came out as gay, I think everybody would embrace that, have their back and literally just move on and focus on winning the games, which is really the important thing and what matters,” Milwaukee Brewers outfielder and 2018 NL MVP Christian Yelich said.

“It doesn’t matter what somebody’s sexuality is.”

Seattle slugger Julio Rodríguez, Chicago Cubs pitcher Marcus Stroman and Toronto pitcher Kevin Gausman are among a group of players who have publicly celebrated Pride Month.

“Love wins,” Rodríguez told The Associated Press. “Definitely you can see that there’s not just me but there was definitely more people across the league that they support this. I feel like you can see the change in that, the support in that.”

Yet signs of dissension remain. The Los Angeles Dodgers have faced criticism for including the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in the team’s upcoming 10th annual Pride Night on Friday. Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw disagreed with the decision but said his objection was based on the Sisters’ satirical portrayal of religious figures and had nothing to do with LGBTQ+ support. Washington pitcher Trevor Williams said he was deeply troubled by the team’s move, decrying what he felt was the group’s mockery of his Catholic religion.

The objection to the Sisters, a group of mainly men who dress as nuns, comes a year after some Tampa Bay players cited their Christian faith in refusing to wear Pride-themed jerseys.

Several hockey players also opted out of wearing rainbow-colored jerseys on Pride nights during the most recent NHL season.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday that MLB has advised teams against adding rainbow accents or patches on uniforms to avoid putting players “in a position of doing something that may make them uncomfortable because of their personal views.”

Dale Scott became the first out major league umpire in 2014, and there have been a handful of out players in the minor leagues. Anderson Comás, a minor league pitcher in the White Sox organization, announced that he was gay in an Instagram post in February. Phillies pitcher Taijuan Walker, Mets outfielder Mark Canha and Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino responded with supportive messages on Twitter.

Speaking to reporters on June 2, the 23-year-old Comás cited the help he received from the organization as a key element of his decision to come out. He declined an interview request made this week by the AP.

Bean came out after his playing career. Glenn Burke’s sexual orientation was known within baseball, but the former big league outfielder did not come out publicly until 1982.

Bean, 59, said he doesn’t think the absence of an openly gay player is the right way to evaluate inclusivity in the major leagues, just like he doesn’t think the sport should be evaluated by a comment that might not be supportive.