I wasn’t going to think about hockey some more until I saw this in The Hollywood Reporter about Heated Rivalry:
Fans are happy, all right. Even the NHL, which in recent years has been trying to broaden its appeal to gay sports fans with LGBTQ-themed events and nights, has expressed delight with the program.
“There are so many ways to get hooked on hockey and, in the NHL’s 108-year history, this might be the most unique driver for creating new fans,” a league rep tells THR. “See you all at the rink.”
You mean the sports league that banned pride jerseys? The league that tried to ban pride tape?
I wrote on bluesky: the league that is very clearly only having pride nights for the sake of rainbow capitalism is very much NOT for having queer fans in the league, let alone queer players. come the fuck on. anyone who buys this statement is on a level of delusional that should get checked out. enjoy Heated Rivalry, fine. whatever. I don't care. just do not go into trying to watch the NHL with any expectations it may be like the show because it won't be. it'll be your nightmares.
I stand by this. Between actually working in the NHL and then being around it for a long time before I quit sometimes makes Clayton Kershaw’s and Jason Adam’s homophobia feel … I don’t know what but it’s not whatever I feel being a queer person around hockey. The NHL feels like a league made up of 75% Airhead Mystery White flavor Clayton Kershaws. James Reimer, then of the San Jose Sharks, had released a statement citing religion as why he didn’t wear the pride jersey. Ivan Provorov, then of the Philadelphia Flyers, also cited religion. You do not gotta hand it to ISIL seeing as pride jerseys still happen around MLB and Minor League Baseball, but the NHL pride jersey ban came after all of these homophobes kept citing their religion as a reason for their bigotry. Jesus would actually hate these people if they knew what the Bible was really about.1
MLB isn’t perfect — far from it. It’s a league constantly capitulating to this administration and deserves all the criticism for that.
As far as day-to-day working in sports goes, I personally would be closeted all around if I worked in the NHL again.2 There’s no way around that. MLB? I’m semi-closeted, meaning I don’t correct people when I get misgendered, mostly out of exhaustion and not wanting to have to explain being nonbinary and not wanting to deal with any other headaches. That said, I have also had a countless amount of PR people in the minor leagues who’ve made a huge effort to make sure to get my pronouns correct. Colleagues around baseball media have been very good about this, as well. I have met more people in baseball who are willing to have a good faith conversation than in hockey.
The one thing that stands out to me immensely is a minor league game I covered in 2017. I was on the field watching batting practice by the home dugout and I heard one player use “gay” in a derogatory way in a conversation. I rolled my eyes, kind of expecting comments like that by this point. His teammates quickly corrected him and told him it wasn’t cool to say that and not to do it again. That part, I wasn’t expecting.
I can never see that happening in hockey, a sport where Commissioner Gary Bettman apparently once said that the NHL is the most diverse of all the sports in 2014, a statement that is clearly very patently false. Says all you need to know about the league, honestly.
Media I’m reading instead of that fuckass article from The Hollywood Reporter
Out of Your League: sorry but I don't give a fuck that the NHL has embraced 'heated rivalry'
Friend and colleague Frankie de la Cretaz also wrote about the NHL and Heated Rivalry and gives more context how this league just flat out sucks with regards to queerphobia and transphobia.
“One of the most homophobic, anti-queer sports leagues in North America has decided that now is the time to welcome queer fans to watch their games and you’ll have to forgive me if I’m a bit cynical about the whole thing.”
Openly gay NHL prospect Prokop speaks out after Reimer refuses to wear Pride jersey
The hed for this article says it all, I think. This is from 2023, if you are wondering just how little this league has progressed.
1 I was baptized Catholic, raised Catholic, did 13 years of Catholic school, took a Bible as literature course in college, and am a Cardinal niece (Cardinal Tagle is my uncle). I have studied the Bible far more than my now atheist ass would like but it’s also given me the knowledge to say that most Christians who hide behind religion to mask bigotry don’t listen to Jesus’ teachings at all.
2 If I ever seriously consider working in the NHL again, though, please either roll me down the Sphere or know that it is a cry for help. Saying I want to work in the NHL again is the sign for anyone to know that I am in trouble.