Professional leagues and teams often rely on Pride nights to increase visibility and tolerance for people from the LGBTQ community—in addition to, of course, selling them tickets—and NHL is one of the circuits that do the most in this regard.
She developed special jerseys designed by artists from the LGBTQ community, gave them a stage to express themselves, set up information booths and even encouraged the presentation of acts orchestrated by drag characters. And it works very well.
However, for the first time this season, six NHL players — including former Montreal Canadiens player Eric Staal, now with the Florida Panthers — recently opted out of the multicolored their team on the occasion of a special evening dedicated to the cause. As a result, commissioner Gary Bettman said he would have to re-evaluate the future of these promotional nights.
These statements are of concern to some LGBTQ supporters and activists, who believe it is a symptom of the current political climate limiting free speech, health, and athletic participation for transgender people in both the United States and Canada and elsewhere in the world. And they now threaten the holding of these special events, which are supposed to be fun and useful to society.
“It’s entirely fair to say that the current political landscape somehow helps to legitimize people who choose not to participate in special events intended to demonstrate their support for marginalized members of society,” said Hudson Taylor, executive director and founder of Athlete Ally, an organization that works with teams and leagues to promote LGBTQ inclusivity.
This season in the NHL, three teams — the Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild — have refused to take part in a warm-up period with the multicolored jersey honoring the LGBTQ community. And a fourth could soon join the movement; the St. Louis Blues. The Rangers and the Wild reversed their decision to don the multi-colored jersey during a warm-up period, without specifying the reasons behind their about-face.
After players and teams opted out of these LGBTQ honoring nights, Bettman said the league will “evaluate” during the summer season how it shows support at these special nights. He added that these refusals were a distraction “from everything that our teams and our league do out of conviction.” The commissioner also pointed out that “most” NHL players, teams and staff support parties honoring the LGBTQ community.
The NHL has worked in partnership for a decade with You Can Play Project, an organization that advocates for the participation of people from the LGBTQ community in sports. Before this season, no NHL player had refused to participate in special evenings dedicated to this community.
The Canadian must hold its LGBTQ evening this Thursday, during the visit of the Washington Capitals to the Bell Center.
CH players will take part in the warm-up period with rainbow-coloured jerseys and ribbon on the blades of their sticks. These will then be auctioned for the benefit of organizations.
