Prokop reflects on year sce g out as gay |

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? 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.

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

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. 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.

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.

PROKOP REFLECTS ON YEAR SCE G OUT AS GAY

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.

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.

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

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. 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. “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.

LE PROKOP COM OUT AS GAY AND MAK NHL HISTORY

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.

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

” 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.

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. ”“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.

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

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. 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.

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

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.

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

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. Corey Walsh, the 27-year-old pro BMX rir and Vans spokperson, said he isn't normally the type of person to "let people " on his personal life, but felt was important to e out as gay a March Instagram post bee "there are a lot of people still stgglg wh the same suatns" and he "jt wanted to let people know that they are not alone.

Champn long track speedskater Conor McDermott-Mostowy never hid beg gay om his fay, iends, and fellow athlet, but he also wasn't one to rate his locker wh rabow Pri flags eher. Soccer midfielr Robbie Rogers g out as homosexual, reports revealed Friday that the Natnal Hockey League has fact had hundreds of openly gay athlet throughout s history. Archaeologists Unver Livg Guy By MistakeOffEnglishSourc nfirmed that gay players have actually been credibly mon the NHL for s, and the league is only now beg creded wh layg the groundwork for the growg acceptance of homosexualy profsnal sports.

“It’s obvly a watershed moment when a player om the NBA announc he’s gay, but most people fet about Montreal Canadiens wger Steve Shutt, who me out back 1972, ” said hockey historian Hank Crerand, notg that Shutt was the first of many gay NHL players to reveal their homosexualy. ”Sce s origal ceptn 1917 through to the “Origal 6” era of the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s, the NHL has reportedly had a long history of gay players and was far ahead of s time batg prejudice and tolerance toward homosexualy wh locker rooms and stadiums. “Thgs really started to take a turn for the better when Mike Ezne beme the first openly gay pta of an Olympic hockey team to w a gold medal, leadg the U.

AN INCLIVE NHL AWAS S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER

”“That kiss really changed a lot of attus wh the hockey muny, ” Crerand Probert, who played 16 seasons for the Detro Red Wgs and Chigo Blackhawks, reportedly had a huge impact on the league as hockey’s “Homo Enforcer, ” timidatg the petn and pummelg opponents wh vic punch. Crerand told reporters that Probert was the “most feared queer” the NHL and transformed the perceptn that a homosexual hockey player uldn’t be a gay goon. Crerand strsed, however, that no athlete was more fluential to the gay rights movement than Wayne Gretzky, wily regard as the greatt gay player NHL history.

“Number 99 pletely changed the landspe for gay athlet the NHL, pecially mercially, and no one had a greater impact on young gay hockey players around the world. Louis, Rick Nash, Ryan Miller, Patrik Elias, Stephen Gnta, Clarke MacArthur, Patrick Dwyer, Mike Rupp, Carey Price, Dt Brown, Zbynek Michalek, Brad Richards, Derek Dorsett, Brian Boyle, David Krejci, Shea Weber, Derick Brassard, Sergei Gonchar, Bran Holtby, Brandon Dubsky, Stephane Robidas, Col Greeng, Jam Reimer, Kev Poul, Brandon Pst, Travis Hamonic, Mart Brour, Joakim Anrsson, Vcent Levalier, Josh Green, Daniel Aledsson, Joe Thornton, Arron Asham, Alexanr Steen, Michael Del Zotto, Patrice Bergeron, Matt Duchene, Teddy Purcell, Michael Ryr, Tomas Fleischmann, Lars Eller, Daniel Wnik, Jyri Niemi, Mikhail Grigorenko, Evanr Kane, David Back, Jiri Tlty, Sam Gagner, David Dharnais, Cody Franson, Steve Ott, Dt Byfuglien, Casey Cizikas, Daniel Sed, Brian Campbell, Ilya Kovalch, Chris Neil, Patrick Sharp, Jaromir Jagr, Hal Gill, Mark Grdano, Marc-Andre Flry, Ray Whney, Mike Cammalleri, Lee Stempniak, Jam van Riemsdyk, Mart Hanzal, David Clarkson, Vny Prospal, Taylor Hall, Ryan Getzlaf, Andrew Ladd, Alexanr Sem, Max Pacretty, Brenn Dillon, Jonathan Toews, Jordan Eberle, Marian Hossa, Frans Nielsen, Alex Galcheny, Bobby Ryan, Manny Malhotra, Mike Fisher, Bryan Ltle, Nail Yakupov, Patrick Marle, Jonathan Huber, Tyler Ennis, Craig Anrson, Saku Koivu, Shane Doan, Ryan Whe, Blake Wheeler, Evgeni Nabokov, Mark Fraser, Jeff Carter, Nicklas Backstrom, Michael Grabner, Brendan Gallagher, Tomas Plekanec, John Tavar, Taylor Pyatt, Alex Burrows, Rene Bourque, Jason Chimera, Jofey Lupul, Corey Perry, Brad Stuart, Jt Williams, Matt Cullen, Marian Gaborik, Patrik Berglund, Brian Elltt, Josh Hardg, Daniel Cleary, Roberto Luongo, Nazem Kadri, Zach Parise, Eric Staal, Jordan Staal, Marc Staal, Jared Staal, Steven Stamkos, and Ryan Kler all g out as gay recent years. Acrdg to experts, the league’s progrsive stance toward homosexualy also paved the way for the 2013 Philalphia Flyers, the only profsnal sports roster history to be prised entirely of gay players.

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

“It’s nice to see the rt of the sports world begng to tch up to the NHL when to gay tolerance, ” said ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose, himself openly gay sce the early 1990s. ”“But whout a doubt, none of this would have been possible whout the unbelievable altism and open-mdns of the NHL fan base, ” add Melrose, “It’s far easier for players to be tly fortable their own sk knowg so many fans are gay too. Apparently, he planned to e out when he was playg profsnally but the anti-gay jok he heard the locker room and worri about his job secury as a hockey player prompted him not ’s what he says about his g out: “It would be ial if I didn’t have to talk about this.