Gay hockey players are changg the sport’s atavistic culture - Outsports

Contents:

• CALLG PRI JERSEYS A DISTRACTN IS SENDG THE WRONG MSAGE, SAYS NHL'S FIRST OPENLY-GAY AGENT
• THIS GAY HOCKEY REFEREE LOV THE GAME. HOMOPHOBIA TELLS HIM THE GAME DON’T LOVE HIM BACK.
• PROKOP REFLECTS ON YEAR SCE G OUT AS GAY
• GAY MALE HOCKEY PLAYERS ARE G OUT DROV, AND CHANGG THE SPORT’S CULTURE
• LE PROKOP COM OUT AS GAY AND MAK NHL HISTORY
• GAY HOCKEY PLAYER: NHL HYPOCRIL TO NMN BRENDAN LEIPSIC WHOUT CHANGG CULTURE
• NHL PROSPECT LE PROKOP OUT AS GAY, A FIRST FOR THE LEAGUE
• REPORT: NHL ACTUALLY HAS HAD HUNDREDS OF OPENLY GAY PLAYERS FOR YEARS
• FAMEWATCHER SEARCH PRIMARY MENU SKIP TO NTENT HOMECELEBRY HAIR TRANSPLANTCELEBRY PLASTIC SURGERYCELEBRY LEATHER JACKETBODY SHAPER SEARCH FOR: HOT HOCKEY PLAYERSGAY HOCKEY PLAYERS LIST: COLLEGE AND PRO ATHLET
• AN INCLIVE NHL AWAS S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER
• BOSTON PRI HOCKEY HOP TO FD MORE GAY RI SKATERS TO EXPAND LEAGUE

CALLG PRI JERSEYS A DISTRACTN IS SENDG THE WRONG MSAGE, SAYS NHL'S FIRST OPENLY-GAY AGENT

The first openly gay NHL agent, Bayne Pettger, dropped by the CBC Victoria stud to share his NHL has always had this stereotype of beg an old boys club, not beg able to grow. Wnipeg LGBTQ advot disappoted followg NHL's cisn to ban themed jerseysYou are the first openly gay NHL agent, and I know you work wh many players, but you're also iends wh many players this league. Jt keepg foced on the posive, bee we n go down that rabb hole of five players of 700 … that's not a player's boytt of team's Pri night tribute 'disrpectful' to gay muny: agentCan you take back three years ago to what that was like for you on a personal level, given the role you play a huge league like the NHL, to e out?

THIS GAY HOCKEY REFEREE LOV THE GAME. HOMOPHOBIA TELLS HIM THE GAME DON’T LOVE HIM BACK.

Unwele spotlight falls on NHL team Pri night eventsMy biggt fear was that I uldn't work hockey and be succsful and be gay, but fact 's been que the oppose.

If a certa percentage of the populatn is queer, we need to have those seats at the table of Hockey 's Pri nights lli wh LGBTQ+ polil climateEveryone always asked me when we were gog to see the first gay NHL player. The 12U hockey ach yellg at me om the bench durg a tournament I was officiatg was referrg to a small pri sticker I put on my helmet after seeg one on the helmet of my favore official, Dre Barone, an out gay AHL (at the time ECHL) official.

PROKOP REFLECTS ON YEAR SCE G OUT AS GAY

More recently, a 12-year-old player was makg homophobic ments to me om the bench while I skated by, and after the third time I gave the bench a penalty. When that same player received another penalty om me (at the time I didn’t realize that was the same player), I got another homophobic tira om the ach.

GAY MALE HOCKEY PLAYERS ARE G OUT DROV, AND CHANGG THE SPORT’S CULTURE

Associatns n do their part by makg sure there are clear l agast homophobic, racist and discrimatory actns and ments, and by followg through on punishment of those who break those l. Whenever I enunter homophobia hockey, I am remd that I love the game, and I want to give back, but sometim feels like the game don’t love me back.

The play-by-play broadster for Uti, the New Jersey Devils' Amerin Hockey League affiliate, publicly me out as gay October 2021, fluenced by Prokop's cisn. Durg the quiet of the sprgtime sports shutdowns, two well-known NHL players, Stanley Cup champn Dt Penner and wger Brendan Leipsic, were ught postg horribly homophobic and misogynistic msag on social media. This year alone, longtime NCAA Divisn 1 ref Brian Hicks announced he was gay; player and referee Gordie Mchard me out; pro announcer Jonathan Kliment penned his g-out story.

LE PROKOP COM OUT AS GAY AND MAK NHL HISTORY

After a lifetime of hearg gay sults the rk — opponents were always lled “cksuckers” or “fuckg fags” — Wton cid to e out to his teammat a heartfelt speech.

Radford ma history as the first petive figure skater to e out as gay while still petg for champnship tl 2014, pavg the way for future LGBTQ+ athlet to e out. Last month, McGillis spoke wh Outsports about the importance of llg out hate-speech hockey, explag why he chose to highlight two-time Stanley Cup champn Dt Penner’s vile nspiracy-filled homophobic Twter timele.

GAY HOCKEY PLAYER: NHL HYPOCRIL TO NMN BRENDAN LEIPSIC WHOUT CHANGG CULTURE

Former NHL biser Brandon Pst recently went on a Twter tira about “reverse racism” and star Bs forward David Pastrnak was ught g “you’re gay” as an sult on his Twch stream, though he did tch himself and apologize.

It was a word he had heard (and, surely, had ed) untls tim before — always a pejorative sense, of urse — locker rooms and on the ice youth hockey, junr hockey, the Amerin Hockey League, the Natnal Hockey obvly knew the leral meang of the word, but to him, didn’t mean gay.

NHL PROSPECT LE PROKOP OUT AS GAY, A FIRST FOR THE LEAGUE

“I was never lled gay slurs tentnally, but jt hearg that passive language regularly locker rooms ma me rent myself, ma me not want to e out, ma me want to die, ” said Brock McGillis, a former hockey player who now fights homophobia hockey and who recently lnched a not-for-prof lled the Alphabet Sports Collective. Acrdg to Beach, durg trag mp before the 2010-11 season — a mere four months after he said vio ach Brad Aldrich sexually asslted him, and after Blackhawks senr management chose to keep Aldrich and s on the allegatns rather than act on them — the then-20-year-old prospect was the subject of homophobic bullyg by his own own teammat.

The hockey world at large is another story, and recent cints the OHL and AHL, where the owners of the Niagara IceDogs and 34-year-old Rochter Amerins forward Ben Holmstrom were spend for g homophobic language unrsre how long the game still has to go.

Anyone who played the NHL the 1980s or 1990s — or who even grew up those s — probably heard the word “gay, ” and all the slurs that imply , ed as a perjorative, a way to qutn one’s masculy or players and former players who are now ach say that’s not how young people talk anymore. ” In a keen example of the need to listen and learn, there was general surprise that the word was even nsired homophobic, spe s clear and direct days, many players proudly put rabow-lored tape on their sticks to show allyship wh the LGBTQ+ muny on “Hockey is for Everyone” nights, and such overt cints are rare the NHL. ”It’s fair to say that you don’t hear the homophobic F-word the NHL much anymore, if at that hardly means homophobic language has been eradited om the league.

REPORT: NHL ACTUALLY HAS HAD HUNDREDS OF OPENLY GAY PLAYERS FOR YEARS

Then he has an advocy ll wh pro hockey players that same year who tell him they’d be “ol” wh a gay teammate as long as they had “segregated showers.

FAMEWATCHER SEARCH PRIMARY MENU SKIP TO NTENT HOMECELEBRY HAIR TRANSPLANTCELEBRY PLASTIC SURGERYCELEBRY LEATHER JACKETBODY SHAPER SEARCH FOR: HOT HOCKEY PLAYERSGAY HOCKEY PLAYERS LIST: COLLEGE AND PRO ATHLET

”“I thk what happened to Kyle Beach was next level, where ’s overt hatred, bigoted homophobia, ” said McGillis, who named his not-for-prof the Alphabet Sports Collective as a way of takg back the word “alphabet, ” which has bee a snarky word to dismiss and dimish the LGBTQ+ muny. I don’t know that there’s much of that, where you’re overtly llg someone a gay slur wh the tent of makg them seem like they’re ls than, or that they are a gay person.

The homogeno nature of the game and the way age groups e up through the ranks together — sequtered wh the same 20 players five or six days a week for years — n create a hermetilly sealed bubble of thoughtlsns. McGillis relled a junr team which one of the olr players snapped at a teammate who didn’t want to do a particular drill or workout and whed, “This is so gay, I n’t believe they’re makg me do this.

Natnal Hockey League prospect Le Prokop me out as gay via a heartfelt statement to fans Monday, sayg he hoped would improve gay visibily wh the hockey muny. “I hope that sharg who I am I n help other people see that gay people are wele the hockey muny, as we work to make sure that hockey is tly for everyone, ” he wrote.

AN INCLIVE NHL AWAS S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER

Prokop hasn’t played an NHL game yet, but if he do, he’ll jo que a small club: There have only been two openly gay active players the four largt US sports leagu – Carl Nassib of the NFL’s Las Vegas Rairs, who me out last month, and Jason Colls, an NBA veteran who me out 2013 and retired the followg season. This n evolve to lastg homophobic attus or e gay players to hi their sexualy om their teammat, said Erik Denison, a behavral scientist and lead rearcher on the Sport Incln Project at Monash Universy Atralia, a June terview wh CNN.

Atralian A-League soccer star Josh Cavallo me out as gay an October vio posted to his social media, beg hailed as the first current male top-flight profsnal soccer player to publicly do so. "He ntued: "Growg up I always felt the need to hi myself, you know, bee I was ashamed, and ashamed I'll never be able to do what I love and be gay.

BOSTON PRI HOCKEY HOP TO FD MORE GAY RI SKATERS TO EXPAND LEAGUE

The 28-year-old Natnal Football League player and Rairs fensive leman ma history when he me out as gay on Instagram durg Pri Month, beg the first veteran NFL player to e out as gay while signed to a regular-season ntract. The Bachelor star and former football player (who was signed by the San Diego Chargers as an undrafted ee agent and was on the practice squad of the Oakland Rairs and the Philalphia Eagl) me out as gay April, sayg he had fally e to terms wh his sexualy and the "next step all of this was sort of lettg people know.