The NHL’s “Player Inclusion Coalition” doesn’t include a single out gay, bisexual or queer-identifying man as a member.
The 20 member-coalition includes women. It includes Black people. It includes Asian people. There are lesbians
Hell, the “inclusion coalition” includes straight, white cisgender men.
Gay men? On a hockey “inclusion coalition”? What are you talking about?
For the only major pro sports league in North America to never have a publicly out gay or bisexual player, it is telling that the NHL would not find a way to include the voice of an out man on their “inclusion coalition.”
This group deserves added scrutiny now that the league front office has chosen to ban Pride Tape from the hockey stick of any NHL player while they are on the ice during games, warm-ups and — yes, you’re reading this right — team practices.
Given the coalition is not made up of only NHL players — it includes various women who’ve never played in the league — you have to wonder why they didn’t include someone like, say, Brock McGillis, who is publicly out as gay and played professional hockey in Canada.
Or, frankly, why they didn’t reach out to Adam Fyrer, the gay former college hockey player.
Why were gay and bisexual men excluded from this “inclusion coalition”? Do they not really want to hear their voices?
You have to wonder.
It was a tough pill to swallow a couple weeks ago. Now, it’s becoming clear that this is seems to be how the NHL is going to do business going forward.
There must be a group of people advising the league front office to abandon the LGBTQ community in any way that is visible to the public. Again, how else do you create an “inclusion coalition” void of the voices of gay men?
These decisions don’t get made lightly. And people like McGillis and Fyrer being frozen out of conversations in the NHL is telling about the league’s intentions on LGBTQ “inclusion” moving forward.
How can the only major pro league in North American to never have a current or former player or coach come out exclude gay men from their “Player Inclusion Coalition”?
As the NHL’s Pride Tape ban disaster continues to unravel, every inch of the league’s “inclusion” efforts should be scrutinized.
That not a single gay man was included on its “Player Inclusion Coalition” speaks volumes.
