In one room we have sports fans who are pleased — proud, even — when their favorite professional athletes climb into rainbow-colored Pride gear to show support for the LGBTQ+ community.
In another room we have fans who believe their sports stars should not be forced, coerced or sweet-talked into participating in these types of events. As an openly gay man I choose to believe this room is much, much smaller than that lively, oversized dance hall with the rainbow tape and the Pride shirts, but that’s not why we’re here.
Instead, let’s talk about a harrowing truth: Life just got a whole lot more complicated if you happen to be a young, closeted hockey player with dreams of being out and proud and playing in the National Hockey League.
That we are having this discussion at all is because of what happened at Madison Square Garden Friday night. Or, to be more accurate, what did not happen. As part of the festivities on what was being billed as Pride Night, members of the New York Rangers were going to wear custom-made Pride sweaters and use sticks wrapped in rainbow tape as they warmed up to play the Vegas Golden Knights.
Except none of that happened. While other pregame festivities contributed to a celebration of Pride Night — NYC Pride co-chair André Thomas took part in the ceremonial puck drop and openly gay Broadway star Michael James Scott performed the national anthem — the players’ Pride shirts and rainbow tape remained backstage.
The Rangers haven’t explained exactly what happened, other than to release a statement that can be folded neatly into two parts:
— “Our organization respects the LGBTQ+ community and we are proud to bring attention to important local community organizations as part of another great Pride Night.”
— “In keeping with our organization’s core values, we support everyone’s individual right to respectfully express their beliefs.”
It’s not unreasonable to wonder if the real problem here is what’s happening on the world stage, not inside a sports arena in New York City. When the Philadelphia Flyers held their Pride Night on Jan. 17, defenseman Ivan Provorov cited his Russian Orthodox faith as his rationale for not wearing a Pride sweater during pregame warmups. It’s worth noting that to live in Russia is to live in a country wallowing in draconian laws that make it illegal for anyone to promote same-sex relationships or suggest that non-heterosexual orientations are “normal.” It’s worth noting, too, that the Rangers have three Russian players — Artemi Panarin, Igor Shesterkin and Vitali Kravtsov — who have friends and family back home.
To bang down gavels of shame, then, is simplistic and naive. Blame pies are for talk shows. Here in the real world, the act of wrapping up a hockey stick in rainbow-colored tape becomes a geopolitical issue. So much for getting out of the house for the night and unwinding at a Rangers game.
Which brings us back to that next generation of NHL players. If you’re openly gay Nashville Predators prospect Luke Prokop, currently playing with the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds, you need to know that things have taken a step or two backward since you were drafted in 2021.
If you’re a closeted player anywhere in the minors, or juniors, or college, or high school, you need to know that events in the world are forcing you deeper into the closet, and possibly deeper into your own world of despair and self-doubt. Sorry if that sounds dark; the closet can be that way.
By not wearing those Pride sweaters during warmups — warmups! — the Rangers are saying, in so many words, that you’re not 100 percent welcome in their dressing room if you happen to be a queer hockey player. Or to get closer to the truth, not 100 percent of the players want you there.
It will be 13 years ago next week that Brendan Burke, the 19-year-old son of longtime NHL executive Brian Burke, was killed in a car crash. Brendan, a student manager of the Miami (Ohio) University hockey team, had come out to his family, classmates and members of the team over Christmas. To this day I smile when I recall the story about how members of the Burke family referred to Brendan’s coming-out announcement as “Big Gay Christmas.”
Everybody loved this kid, this kid who was going to make a difference.
Since his death, the entire Burke family has worked to erase homophobia in sports, from Papa Burke participating in Pride parades to the family-run “You Can Play” project.
Please don’t tell me Brendan Burke should have kept his sexual orientation to himself.
Please don’t tell me the Burke family shouldn’t be so out front about their desire to make sports a safe place for LGBTQ+ athletes.
And yet here we are, 13 years later, and we can’t get a bunch of hockey players to skate around for 10 or 15 minutes while wearing Pride shirts.
People are always bellowing that we should leave politics out of sports. This is the rare case in which those people are right.
(Photo of New York Rangers players celebrating after a 4-1 win against the Vegas Golden Knights: Jared Silber / NHLI via Getty Images)