Natl Hockey League & Players Association to foster gay friendly environment

[palbert]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-400_162-...ity-in-sports/

The National Hockey League and its players association are teaming up with an advocacy group that promotes gay rights and strives to foster a welcoming environment for gay athletes, the league announced Thursday.

The "historic partnership" makes the NHL the first of the four major U.S. pro sports leagues to form an official alliance with the You Can Play Project, an organization that aims to end homophobia in sports locker rooms.
....
Patrick Burke, a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers, launched You Can Play last year in memory of his brother Brendan, who died in a car accident in 2010. The year before his death, Brendan made headlines when he came out while serving as the manager of a college hockey team.

A welcome development.

[rareboy]

At long fucking last.

[chrisrobin]

.




http://www.hockeybroad.com/2010/06/b...ey-cup-at.html

Tradition has it that each member of the Stanley Cup team may keep it for one day. Brent Sopel chose June 27, 2010 as his day and he brought it to the Pride Parade in honor of Brendan Burke.

RFK couldn't have said it better:

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve
the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of
hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and
daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls
of oppression and resistance.” –Senator Robert F. Kennedy, June 6th, 1966

Here's to you, Brendan Burke (and Brent Sopel).

I am hoping this will help professional athletics and their attitude to the LGBT community. We can only hope.

[TX-Beau]

I'm predicting an upsurge of Hockey Porn.

[maxpowr9]

Considering most of the NHL is Canadians, where gay marriage is legal, this isn't a shock to me.

BTW, your naivety on this issue is pretty pathetic for being "informed gays". The movie Breakfast with Scot was made way the fuck back in 2006 which prominently featured the Toronto Maple Leafs and it was the first "North American" professional sports team to come out for LGBT equality.

[Sausy]

Very good to hear.... hopefully more of the major sports will take up this kind of supportive stance in the near future.

[chance1]

As an avid hockey fan, NY Rangers as my team, having been to many games - most home but many on the road .....

Hockey players are in general:
great looking
fit
nice
approachable

as for canadiens ....... it's about 50% now with americans at 25% - the rest mostly european

all the above is true and on a relative basis ...... compared to nba, nfl, mlb - the hockey players are just more down to earth

perhaps it's because they make less money - still a lot but less than other major sports

it's a great group of people who happen to be professional athletes

and on a hockey team the coach is still in charge vs. other sports where in many cases coaches are tolerated

hockey teams are collaborative and less me me me

most of the NHL happens to be white - very few african americans playing the game

not surprised at all that the players and league are pro gay

[skinIsIn]

As an avid hockey fan, NY Rangers as my team, having been to many games - most home but many on the road .....

Hockey players are in general:
great looking
fit
nice
approachable

as for canadiens ....... it's about 50% now with americans at 25% - the rest mostly european

all the above is true and on a relative basis ...... compared to nba, nfl, mlb - the hockey players are just more down to earth

perhaps it's because they make less money - still a lot but less than other major sports

it's a great group of people who happen to be professional athletes

and on a hockey team the coach is still in charge vs. other sports where in many cases coaches are tolerated

hockey teams are collaborative and less me me me

most of the NHL happens to be white - very few african americans playing the game

not surprised at all that the players and league are pro gay

I mostly agreed with you till you stuck that fat foot of yours in your mouth. It is not Race issue nor the fact there are few African-American/Black-Canadian in the NHL. How ignorant!

I think it's more complex than that...it goes back to the origins of hockey relative to the typical high-school jock culture these athletes grew up in. All the major team sports are macho, competitive and very much a boys club. Football and Basketball (and sometimes Baseball) are the most revered sports to play (football "worship") due to the prestige, pride and monetary potential of being a stand-out in the sport. So it tends to attract the basest type of "trash, white, black or brown" found in any part of Small Town Or Urban North America.

Hockey is different, it takes dedication, fine skills, a thick skin(hockey is not seen as prestigious) and hard work...and most of all, a true love for the game. I feel baseball is the same way, but it does need to rid itself of small-mindedness.
Football and Basketball are merely Bread and Circus for the fervent masses.

[chance1]

hockey unlike the other sports is uber white - that's a fact

pointing that out is not ignorant

it's informed

same first letter but very different terms

i agree with your post save for your knee jerk ignorant comment

[skinIsIn]

hockey unlike the other sports is uber white - that's a fact

pointing that out is not ignorant

it's informed

Be that as it may, the implication that "more percentages of Black athletes = more homophobia within the sport and locker room" is patently false. It has to do with the collective culture of the sport and ones background, you are making a gross assumption based on a few homophobic knuckleheads that had the uncouthness to voice their bigotry!

So much for someone living in NYC having an open mind!

[chance1]

i don't think i made any assumption

i pointed out a fact

i don't know if there's something there - but there might be

you've said the rest

go rangers - big game vs. the islanders tomorrow night

[Rolyo85]

I hate to turn this into a race thing, but black culture is still more homophobic than not, so it's not completely devoid of reason to look into it.

[chrisrobin]

I hate to turn this into a race thing, but black culture is still more homophobic than not, so it's not completely devoid of reason to look into it.

Good News! The NAACP endorsed marriage equality today. The snowball continues to roll!

[maxpowr9]

[B]I think it's more complex than that...it goes back to the origins of hockey relative to the typical high-school jock culture these athletes grew up in. All the major team sports are macho, competitive and very much a boys club. Football and Basketball (and sometimes Baseball) are the most revered sports to play (football "worship") due to the prestige, pride and monetary potential of being a stand-out in the sport. So it tends to attract the basest type of "trash, white, black or brown" found in any part of Small Town Or Urban North America.

Maybe in the midwest hockey sucks but ESPECIALLY in the Boston area, hockey is THE winter sport. There's a little diddy called the Beanpot that shows how prominent hockey is in Boston. Basketball is an afterthought. Fuck, wrestling is still a popular sport in MA compared to the rest of the country.

I could go further into a sports discussion but there is another subforum for that.

[desertboi]

Being a life-long hockey and NHL fan, it's great that the league and the NHLPA are doing this. Brendan Burke was my hero as he was only a couple of years older than me. Great to see his legacy is carrying on!

[White Eagle]

Hey, little ole Corpus Christi Texas has a hockey team. It's not NHL, but still it's hockey. Maybe their league will follow suit.
I think skinIsIn is right. Race should not even be in this issue.