Ruminations: An NHL-LGBTQ+ Turning Point?

"It's definitely fair to say that this political landscape is helping to sort of normalize people for opting out of the optional ways that they have been asked to show support for marginalized members of society."
Hudson Taylor, executive director, founder, Athlete Ally

"The laws that are being passed, the players not participating, all exist within the same kind of ecosphere."
"They all exist within this larger anti-LGBTQ discourse which I think we are often very quick to point out about other countries and maybe less so to think about how that's affecting things in the United States."
Evan Brody, associate professor, research on LGBTQ+ spaces in sports, University of Kentucky

"[Between the players opting out and the team decisions the league will] evaluate [in the off-season how it handles Pride nights moving forward; the refusals are a distraction from] the substance of what our teams and we have been doing and stand for."
"[The NHL, teams and players] overwhelmingly [support Pride nights]."
"Some players choose to make choices that they are free to make. That doesn't mean they don't respect other people and their beliefs and their lifestyles and who they are."
"It just means they don't want to endorse it by wearing uniforms that they are not comfortable wearing."
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman

"I don't think the LGBTQ community should feel that NHL hockey players are turning their back on that community."
"A super-majority of players have worn the jersey."
NHL Players' Association executive director Marty Walsh

Calgary Flames wear Pride jerseys in warmups on March 28.

NHLI via Getty Images

To the present, the NHL has been a leader among sports leagues and teams mounting Pride nights in solidarity with and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people. In the process they sell tickets to them. These visibility-raising events include special jerseys designed by LGBTQ+ artists along with performances, information tables and drag performances on occasion. All of which have been well received both by the public and the teams involved.

Recently a slight change has been noticed with a handful of NHL players opting out of wearing rainbow-coloured jerseys on team Pride nights which led the league's commissioner to explain that the change is leading to a need to reconsider staging of these events. A situation that has caused consternation among the LGBTQ+ community as well as among their supporters and fans of the events.

Interpreted as a sign that restrictions have arisen in reflection of a new political climate leading to the questioning of expression, health care and transgender sports participation both in the U.S. and internationally, threatening events meant to be entertaining and enjoyable. It is troubling to Athlete Ally, an organization working with teams and leagues for LGBTQ+ inclusivity.

A big screen shows "Blackhawks Pride Night," before a game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Chicago Blackhawks in Chicago

A screen displays "Blackhawks Pride Night" before a game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Chicago Blackhawks in Chicago on March 26. Nam Y. Huh / AP

Three NHL teams, the Blackhawks, the Rangers and the Wild, that previously wore rainbow warm-ups declined to do so any longer. No NHL players previously had opted out of Pride events. The changes coincide with the U.S. Republican lawmakers pursuing numerous proposals to push back on LGBTQ+, particularly transgender rights.

International sports governing bodies are also involved in instituting policies to ban all trans athlete from competing in track and field to effectively ban transwomen from women's swimming events. In all fairness it makes no sense to welcome transwomen in competition with biological women for obvious reasons; the strength acquired through the natural biological processes during the preteen, teen and more mature years that biological males are endowed with render a transwoman a formidable opponent.

Russian players in particular, influenced by measures put into law in Russia against LGBTQ 'propaganda' made a criminal offence. Russian players fear a backlash for their family members in Russia, should they be implicated in advancing the case of normalizing multiple genders.