“And that’s where that cycle continues to perpetuate itself.” “I heard stories of a junior team last year, on the first day with the team … the coach looked at them and said, ‘I don’t want any f-s on this team,’” he said. Unfortunately, hockey’s culture hasn’t changed much since McGillis was playing in the OHL. He’s sharing his story in the hopes that it will help chip away at the toxic anti-gay attitudes that are destroying the sport that he loves. Today, McGillis is a public speaker in Canada. “It’s our job to create a culture and an environment where a gay player knows he is safe and welcome.” - Gary Bettman Eventually, he grew to hate himself, and on more than one occasion, he tried to take his own life. He partied, drank, dated girls, and did everything he could to conform with his teammates. Marie Greyhounds and the Windsor Spitfires, but the homophobia in hockey forced him to live a double life as a young gay man. He played major junior for the Sault Ste. McGillis, now 34, was once a promising hockey prospect. This is partly because some of the people who run the sport – who coach it, parent it, play it – haven’t done a good enough job carrying the game into the 21st century, and partly because the young men who play are emotionally and intellectually arrested, being deprived of education and life guidance in pursuit of a nearly impossible dream.īrock McGillis, a retired Canadian goaltender who played professionally in the Netherlands, is another hockey player who has spoken out about the sport’s homophobic culture. Here’s an excerpt from his column “Hockey and Homophobia: We are All Complicit.”īut from minor midget to bantam to the junior ranks to college hockey, homophobic and sexist slurs exist because they are allowed to exist. And that is because homophobic slurs are, unfortunately, commonplace on the ice, in the stands, and in locker rooms all over the hockey world.ĭave Bidini hit the nail on the head on this issue two years ago for the Globe and Mail. Knowing everything he knows now, he believes that he would have quit playing hockey in his teens if he was gay. Nilsson, an outspoken LGBTQ advocate, was the first NHL player to wear a pride flag on his helmet. Team sports are about the feeling of togetherness, it’s just as fun to go there to hang out and have someone to talk to as the actual sports, but if you have a hard time in the dressing room when you’re a teen it’s not as fun to play hockey on the field either.” There’s no one who would dare to or want to keep playing. “That’s why I think when people say there are three to four gay players on each team, I say no, absolutely not,” Nilsson explained in his interview with Aftonbledet. Many youth hockey players also have to overcome roadblocks because of their family’s income, where they live, their mental and physical health, the color of their skin, their gender identity, and their sexuality. Skill level and natural athletic ability are probably the first two barriers that come to mind for most of us, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of barriers that stand between a young hockey player and their dream to play in the NHL. But an improbability is not an impossibility, and there are a lot more factors at play here than just math. It is statistically improbable that there hasn’t been a gay man in the NHL in the last 100 years.
The data we have about human sexuality supports that theory. Many believe that there are and have been gay men in the NHL.
We have all seen the headlines about players getting caught using homophobic slurs on and off the ice.
You don’t need to know the statistics to understand that there’s a problem here.
Holtby gay pride hat professional#
The other three major professional sports leagues in North America have all had active and/or retired players who have come out as openly gay. To date, there has never been an openly gay player in the NHL. Many believe that it simply isn’t happening fast enough. The NHL has been making an effort to change that culture with events like Hockey is For Everyone Month and its partnership with You Can Play, but change has been slow in coming. On August 14, Anders Nilsson of the Vancouver Canucks told Swedish outlet Aftonbledet that hockey’s homophobic culture is hurting the sport.