An Inclive NHL Awas s First Openly Gay Player

Contents:

• AN INCLIVE NHL AWAS S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER
• CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: TROY AIKMAN SAYS BEG GAY ‘IS NOT MY LIFTYLE’
• THIS GAY NHL FAN WAS ATTACKED AND IS G FORWARD TO STOP HOMOPHOBIA

AN INCLIVE NHL AWAS S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER

All month long, Outsports is revisg key moments gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr and queer sports history as part of LGBTQ history month. ”People didn’t really ask the qutn so much as assume that I’m gay, ” said Kper, who is straight and liv New York wh his wife, photographer Annelizabeth Wells, and their two children. But when a man pats this patg, ’s associated wh homoerotic activy.

CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: TROY AIKMAN SAYS BEG GAY ‘IS NOT MY LIFTYLE’

There has never been an openly gay player the NHL. Not one player the league’s 103-year existence has ever e out publicly as gay – not even retirement. I have heard the explanatns, rangg om the ludicro (there are no “gays” the league) to the simplistic (the game’s hateful, toxic male culture driv gay players unrground).

I believe, however, that won’t be long before the NHL has openly gay players lacg up their skat and others workg the ranks of management and hockey operatns. Related: Is the NHL Ready for a Gay Player? NHL missner Gary Bettman regnized this 2016 when he spoke about the league’s partnership wh the You Can Play anizatn, workg to dismantle barriers met by gay athlet sport.

But I thk ’s our job to create a culture and an environment where a gay player knows he is safe and wele. If and when that happens, believe me, that person will have the full support of the missner’s office” (om “Gary Bettman says NHL is ready for s first openly gay player, ” The Chigo Tribune, 29/06/2016) Commissner Gary Bettman (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)Today, hockey mt reflect the changg valu of s fan base.

THIS GAY NHL FAN WAS ATTACKED AND IS G FORWARD TO STOP HOMOPHOBIA

Fans of the future will not accept homophobia the sports and entertament products they Are No Gay Players the NHL.., there are now and always have been gay players the NHL. Admtedly, precise timat of the gay populatn the league are notorly difficult to fd.

Nohels, acrdg to a 2017 Gallup study based on 340, 000 terviews, the percentage of Amerin adults intifyg as lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr 2017 was 4. Takg to acunt the multatnal makp of the NHL, let’s assume gay men make up half that number or 2. If the assumptns hold then, wh roughly 700 players the NHL, we n reasonably expect at least 15 gay players the league any given year.

That means that, over the years, there have probably been several hundred gay NHLers, all of whom prumably kept their sexual orientatn hidn om the still sist that, notwhstandg the odds, there are simply no gay men playg the NHL. Mark Tewksbury, an Olympic gold medalist swimmg at the 1992 Olympic gam, a former chef missn of Canada’s 2012 Summer Olympic team and a proment gay activist sports for many years, sffs at that ia.