A professional hockey player in the National Women’s Hockey League has announced he is transitioning genders and will live life openly as a man. Harrison Browne of the Buffalo Beauts announced his transition today on SB Nation’s women’s hockey blog The Ice Garden and ESPN.
“Beginning today – the start of the 2016-17 National Women’s Hockey League season – I’m making official what has been part of my life for a few years now,” Browne wrote for The Ice Garden. “I’m Harrison. I’m a “he.” As in “Harrison Browne made a good pass for the primary assist on that goal by the Beauts.” Or “He really lost his check on that one,” haha.”
Browne will play publicly out for the first time tonight against the Boston Pride.
ESPN’s Michele Steele caught up with Browne before the announcement.
"On the ice, when I put that equipment on, I'm a hockey player. I don't think about who I'm playing with, I don't think I'm playing with women. I don't think I'm in the wrong body," he told Steele. "Off the ice, I felt more comfortable having my friends call me what I wanted to be called, referring to me with the pronouns that I wanted. If anything, my product on the ice was let loose and I could be myself."
Browne is the first publicly out transgender professional hockey player in America. We wish him and the Beauts success tonight and all season long!
