The National Hockey League (NHL), the highest level professional ice hockey league representing 32 North American teams, has banned teams from wearing Pride-themed warm-up jerseys during the teams’ LGBTQ+-inclusive Pride nights.
The NHL’s ban will also forbid teams from wearing jerseys commemorating military veterans, people with cancer, and others. The league’s decision comes during Pride Month and barely a week after Major League Baseball (MLB) announced a similar ban.
When a gay couple was shown kissing in the stadium, he said “That’s disgusting. Security, get rid of them.”
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman recently talk to Sportsnet about the rainbow-colored jerseys and how some players have refused to wear them.
“It’s become a distraction,” Bettman said. “And taking away from the fact that all of our clubs host nights in honor of various groups or causes, and we’d rather they continue to get the appropriate attention they deserve and not be a distraction.”
Bettman noted that NHL teams will still host Pride nights; players just won’t wear rainbow-colored jerseys during those nights.
Bettman’s “distraction” comment may reference instances like what happened last January when Philadelphia Flyers’ player Ivan Provorov refused to take part in his team’s Pride Night warm-up session because he didn’t want to wear a rainbow-colored jersey. He said the jersey violated his Russian Orthodox Christian beliefs.
In March, James Reimer, a goalie with the San Jose Sharks, declined to wear his team’s Pride jersey for the same reason. Players with the Minnesota Wild and New York Rangers have refused to wear the jerseys as well.
In a statement against the new policy, You Can Play, an organization opposing queerphobia in sports, said that they were “concerned and disappointed” by the new policy.
“Today’s decision means that the over 95% of players who chose to wear a Pride jersey to support the community will now not get an opportunity to do so. Pride nights will continue and we look forward to further enhancing the programming these opportunities bring to the mission of inclusion and belonging for the 2SLGBTQ+ community given this restriction,” the organization said.
Hockey commentator Gord Miller criticized the decision on Twitter, writing, “In addition to the LGBTQ+ community, people with cancer, members of the military and their families, black and indigenous people will be among those who will no longer be visibly recognized before games.”
In March, Luke Prokop, the only out gay athlete ever to play under an NHL contract, said“It’s disheartening to see some teams no longer wearing [Pride jerseys] or embracing their significance, while the focus of others has become about the players who aren’t participating rather than the meaning of the night itself.”
Prokop said that Pride Nights and Pride jerseys play an important part in “promoting and respecting inclusion for the LGBTQIA+ community” and in “fostering greater acceptance and understanding” of queer people in his sport.
“Everyone is entitled to their own set of beliefs,” he said, adding, “I think it’s important to recognize the difference between endorsing a community and respecting individuals within it.”
Last week, MLB announced a similar ban on Pride-themed jerseys.
Soccer champ Nilla Fischer has revealed that she and her teammates on Sweden’s national team had to “show their genitalia for the doctor” at the 2011 Women’s World Cup to prove that they were cis women.
Fischer bares all in her new autobiography I Didn’t Even Say Half of It, where she describes the “humiliating” experience of showing her vagina to a designated physiotherapist.
“We were told that we should not shave ‘down there’ in the coming days and that we will show our genitalia for the doctor,” wrote Fischer.
The reveal at that year’s World Cup in Germany was prompted by accusations from Nigeria, South Africa, and Ghana that Equatorial Guinea had men on their squad.
“No one understands the thing about shaving but we do as we are told and think ‘how did it get to this?’ Why are we forced to do this now, there has to be other ways to do this. Should we refuse?”
“At the same time no one wants to jeopardize the opportunity to play at a World Cup. We just have to get the s**t done no matter how sick and humiliating it feels.”
Two weeks before the tournament, FIFA issued a policy requiring teams to sign a declaration guaranteeing players are “of an appropriate gender.” That policy is still in effect.
After the African accusations, FIFA demanded immediate testing.
“I understand what I have to do and quickly pull down my training pants and underwear at the same time,” Fischer told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. “The physio nods and says ‘yup’ and then looks out at the doctor who is standing with his back to my doorway. He makes a note and moves on in the corridor to knock on the next door.
“When everyone on our team is checked, that is to say, has exposed their vagina, our team doctor can sign that the Swedish women’s national football team consists only of women.”
Fischer credits staff for making the odious experience bearable.
“We had a very safe environment in the team. So it was probably the best environment to do it in. But it’s an extremely strange situation and overall not a comfortable way to do it.”
Sweden’s team doctor at the time, Mats Börjesson, was circumspect.
“FIFA doesn’t do this to be mean to anyone,” he said. “The sports world has tried to create fairness for girls so that they don’t train their whole lives and then someone comes in with an unreasonable advantage.”
While a physical exam is expeditious, buccal swab testing to collect DNA in the mouth is the more common method used to determine sex.
The Toronto Blue Jays baseball team have announced they are to drop pitcher Anthony Bass after an anti-LGBTQ+ post he made has caused widespread condemnation.
The 35-year-old was dropped from the Canadian baseball team after three years following the pitcher sharing a video to his Instagram account in May encouraging viewers to boycott Bud Light.
Bud Light boycotts became synonymous with right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry after the beer company organised a sponsorship deal with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Bass’ post, which he later deleted and apologised for, encouraged Christians to boycott the brand, calling it an “evil” and “demonic” force being shoved “into children’s faces”.
Following the near month-long condemnation of Bass, Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said on Friday (9 June) that the team would drop Bass from its line-up.
In a statement, Atkins explained that the decision was primarily regarding performance on the field, but that “distraction” was also part of it.
“I’m saying we’re trying to build the best possible team we can build and this was a baseball decision to make our team better,” he said.
The move came just hours before the Blue Jays were set to start their first game of Pride Weekend against the Minnesota Twins. Bass was expected to take part in the match.
Anthony Bass apologises for a second time, stands by his ‘personal beliefs’
“We definitely don’t want anyone feeling any hurt,” Atkins said. “We’re focused on the environment. We care about this community. We care about our fans. And I deeply regret if people do feel that way. It certainly was not our intention.”
Shortly after deleting his Instagram post, Bass apologised for the post, recognising that it was “hurtful to the Pride community,” which he said includes “friends” and “close family members”.
In his first on-pitch appearance following the backlash, the player was met with a chorus of boos from fans angered by the situation.
He then reiterated his apology on Thursday (8 June) when he said he stands by his “personal beliefs”.
“But I also mean no harm towards any groups of people,” he said. “And I felt like taking that down the second time was the right thing to do and not being a distraction.
“As a team, our job is to win baseball games. And that’s my focus.”
Bass’ initial call for a Bud Light boycott saw him join such right-wing, anti-LGBTQ+ pundits as self-described theocratic fascist Matt Walsh, who said that the boycott “was about sending a message”, and musician-turned-anti-woke pundit Kid Rock, who filmed himself shooting cans of the beer.
Day after day we see Republicans trying to outdo each other in how vile and frightening they can be. From the fight over the debt ceiling, to their presidential primary, they continue to try to take the nation backwards.
In the debt ceiling fight, they clearly say, “We will protect the wealthy in our country at all costs, and instead will cut, or eliminate, programs to help the poor.” The far-right wing crazies like Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), are threatening their own speaker, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), with the loss of his job if he doesn’t go along with what they want. Now that a deal has been cut, we will see how they, and left-leaning Democrats who have been putting pressure on President Biden to reject all Republican demands, will vote. These are facts of life in our nation today. Any person with a shred of decency should be embarrassed. I don’t envy President Biden for what he has to do to keep the nation from defaulting on its debts. The political reality is that he had to give in on some issues. Democrats should not fault him, but rather blame Republicans.
It is scary when you see what Republicans are doing around the nation with regard to abortion rights, civil rights, and LGBTQ rights. One recent example being Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proudly signing the bill making abortion only legal until six weeks. There are women who don’t even know by then they are pregnant. Also, it’s time men start understanding how this impacts them. Women need to remind the fathers what their responsibility will be if they both aren’t ready for a child but are forced to have one.
One ignorant parent in Florida complained, and according to politico was able to have “A Miami-Dade elementary school limit some access to Amanda Gorman’s presidential inauguration poem, ‘The Hill We Climb,’ complaining that it contained indirect “hate messages.” This is insanity and the clear result of Trump’s impact on the culture of the nation. He made it OK to once again have hatred spewed from the public square, frightening decent people.
Like the threats against Target. CNN reported the company was “removing some products that celebrate Pride month after the company and its employees became the focus of a “volatile” anti-LGBTQ campaign. The company told the Wall Street Journal that people have confronted workers in stores, knocked down Pride merchandise displays and put threatening posts on social media with video from inside stores. Some people have thrown Pride items on the floor, Target spokesperson Kayla Castaneda told Reuters. CNN went on to report “Prominent right-wing activists, Republican political leaders, and conservative media outlets, have focused their attention on a women’s swimsuit that was described as “tuck friendly” for its ability to conceal male genitalia. Misinformation spread on social media that it was marketed to children, which it was not.” Again, insanity, promoted by the right wing. The people doing this should be arrested and prosecuted.
It only gets worse as Republican candidates running for president try to outdo each other with anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, trying to improve their poll numbers. DeSantis can tout his “don’t say gay legislation.” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a Black man, who says the country is not racist, touts his opposition to marriage equality. Then there is Mike Pence who will quote the Bible to you, claiming it tells us how terrible it is to be gay.
The Daily News recently reported “Following last year’s more than 220 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced across the country, a poll by The Trevor Project found 71% of LGBTQ youth — and 86% trans and nonbinary youth — said they were negatively impacted by the flurry of proposals to restrict their rights.” They went on to report, “As of May 23, more than 520 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in statehouses across the country, according to the Human Rights Campaign. More than 220 of those specifically restrict the rights of transgender and nonbinary people. These are all Republican bills.
This will continue unabated if we don’t defeat Republicans everywhere. In sharp contrast, Democrats in the Maryland legislature, led by Delegates David Moon (D-Montgomery County) and Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore County) and State Senator Howard Lam (D-Baltimore and Howard Counties), managed to repeal the states sodomy law and pass gun-control measures.
Republicans will continue to carry out their agenda of hate across the nation unless we say with our votes, “We won’t take this anymore.” The United States is better than this and we will show the world we will not tolerate hate; we will fight it.
Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.
I’m a former teacher and an openly gay man. Before I ever stepped foot in the halls of Congress, I spent the 1980s and 90s working in California public schools, and I can tell you: we’ve been here before. What Republicans are trying to do to our students and public education will send us back 40 years.
When I began my career in the 80s, California was just a few years out from a defeat of the Briggs Initiative — a piece of state legislation that would have banned all openly gay and lesbian teachers from working in California public schools. I was a high school student when that proposition was debated and listened to state legislators talk about how such a ban was necessary to “defend our children.” They claimed that the presence of LGBTQI+ teachers and the mere discussion of LGBTQI+ topics was an effort to “recruit” children into the “homosexual lifestyle.”
In the four decades since we’ve come a long way with LGBTQI+ rights – but the rhetoric is just the same as it was 40 years ago. Today, in a frenzied effort to create new culture wars targeting the LGBTQI+ community, anti-equality politicians are staking the health, well-being, and safety of our educators and our children on their messaging campaigns.
More specifically, anti-equality Republicans are asking families, teachers, and students to carry the cost of their political gain and turning a blind eye to the myriad of other consequences that will come from enacting anti-LGBTQI+ laws through Congress in addition to the legislation sweeping through state legislatures.
As we approach Harvey Milk Day this month – named in honor of an LGBTQI+ civil rights hero that spearheaded the charge to defeat the Briggs Initiative – I’ve been thinking about a quote of his from the campaign against the anti-gay laws that swept the country in the 1970s:
Openly LGBTQI+ role models are far more numerous today than when I first began teaching, and our language is constantly expanding to describe the beautiful array of identities and experiences that exist. Educators, parents, and community advocates are publishing books that help LGBTQI+ kids see themselves represented, educate their peers, and put tools in the hands of teachers.
At the same time — and likely directly in response to this progress — I listen to my colleagues use their platform in the House of Representatives to use the same tactics that State Senator John Briggs tried back in the 1970s: using fear to whip up a moral panic for political gain.
In the first education-related bill that the Republicans have brought to the Floor this Congress, they chose to use committee time and taxpayer dollars to pass H.R. 5, the “Parents Bill of Rights,” through the House of Representatives, a bill which opens the door to book bans and would require schools to forcibly out trans youth, even if it puts them in harm’s way. In the name of preserving the rights of a small but vocal minority of parents, H.R. 5 places further bureaucratic burdens on teachers and further marginalizes an already vulnerable group of students.
As a teacher, I can tell you the cost of these kinds of insidious measures on children.
When I was training to be a teacher in the late 80s, I remember the vicious and relentless bullying that a transgender student of mine went through. I know of instances where students were outed by staff and faced severe punishment at home. Later in my career, I learned of one student who was viciously beaten by his father and transferred out of the district after his family was informed that he had been caught being physically affectionate with another boy.
As a Member of Congress, it’s my job to support the most vulnerable members of our community. We must focus on making our children feel safe and supported so that they can reach their fullest potential. We must tackle the crises in our education systems that threaten safety and support in our schools including underresourced teachers, the youth mental health crisis, gun violence, and gaps in educational equity. As a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and a Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, I will continue to use my position to do just that.
It is time to advocate for the real needs of our students and to stop playing politics. Politicians with a platform, teachers with lived experience, activists brave enough to speak out, and those who fight for full equality in this country must speak up.
LGBTQI+ students deserve to know that elected officials aren’t working against them, but rather working to ensure they can be successful in the future.
I think about my former students all the time. I may no longer be their teacher, but I’ll never stop fighting in the halls of Congress for their right to receive an education in a safe and affirming environment.
Rep. Mark Takano, a Democrat from California representing the state’s 39th district, is co-chair of the Equality Caucus.
Many of us have lived the contradiction. We have had friends and/or family members loving and supporting us to our faces, but facing a ballot box, vote for someone eager to do us harm. Do they really love us?
We are collectively experiencing such a situation as a community, a back-stabbing characteristic of when Julius Caesar uttered “E Tu Brutus,” as his best friend’s knife came hurling towards him.
This time the victim is not some classical politician however, it is a group of our most vulnerable — our LGBTQ kids who are getting the steely betrayal.
American conservatism has been incredibly callous towards children in general. When three Christian kids were gunned down recently, leading conservatives publicly shrugged their shoulders and said the silent part out loud, “We are not going to help you.” They have made it clear that in a choice between guns and children, guns win.
It is in this crucible of priorities that current conservative strategists live, and within their strategies, a distracting scapegoat has needed to be found and opportunistically vilified.
For this brand of American conservatives, that group of scapegoats is transgender kids. Certainly the conservatives are after people of color, women, immigrants, the LGBTQ community as a whole, but are deadlocked most severely on the transgender teen, and if that teen is athletic – they receive the pinnacle of ire.
Conventional thought would assume that the targeted teen transgender athletes might find their greatest safe harbor and advocacy in a publication called Outsports.
Outsports is the premier LGBTQ news website that deals with issues and personalities in amateur and professional sports. With articles boasting titles such as “Sports need to discuss cisgender discomfort over transgender athletes winning,” a teen feeling bullied and beaten by the reigning Republicans in transphobic state houses might feel at home.
Don’t get comfortable.
Cyd Zeigler, co-founder and editor of Outsports has announced, “I just registered as a Republican for the first time in 20 years.” (“He’s ALWAYS been ‘a Republican’ philosophically,” one source who works closely with him reports.)
Zeigler’s excuse for aligning with a party that has made transphobia a platform, is the indictment of Donald Trump. He fumes the Republican talking point that the Democrats are “seeking to use the government to attack political foes.” This motivation alone calls into question Zeigler’s competency in leading a transgender affirming publication. The discussions around trans rights are to educate with facts to offset Republicans’ vapid transphobic talking points. That he embraces such thin politically manipulative talking points around a judicial case, of which no one has yet seen the specifics and cannot sincerely evaluate, let alone judge, makes him a slave to politics and a betrayer of principle.
To add further insult to injury to the trans community, and to be, as athletic rights expert Dr. Veronica Ivy calls him, “a danger to trans people,” Zeigler has aligned himself with probably the most transphobic wing of Republicans he can. “Thank you @GovRonDesantis,” he tweets.
Thanking Ron DeSantis, the governor who spent the first day of Pride month in 2021 signing one of the first anti-trans athlete bills into law. Jaw drop. Thanking Ron DeSantis, not only an American conservative adhering to the plan to scapegoat LGBTQ kids and erase them, but who is arguably the architect of that plan.
It might be one thing if Zeigler had aligned himself with a Republican governor who vetoed a transphobic bill like Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox, but no, Zeigler opted to go full traitor.
Being asked to trust a media player who in secret does not have your best interests at heart, is possibly becoming “normal.” We in the LGBTQ community have an editor power-player embracing the political mastermind of transphobic and LGBT erasure politics, and the conservatives? Well, they have Tucker Carlson who secretly “hates Trump passionately.”
While Trump-ian Richard Grenell and Zeigler’s sister “Jess Z” applaud him, “So proud of my brother!” car dealer Jess exclaims, we have to send deep condolences to his staff, none of whom deserve this disrespect.
As for the LGBTQ community, and our teens in particular, John Casey of the Advocate asks, “Does Zeigler honestly have your best interests at heart? Does he truly represent what it means to be queer? Would you feel safe going to Zeigler?”
Our teens need, nay, they crave a hero who unflinchingly has their backs. Zeigler likes to cite his “many many years of advocating for trans people,” as his defense.
On March 31, Kentucky became the 38th state to legalize medical cannabis. The same week, the state’s legislature overrode the governor’s veto to enact what the ACLU has called the “worst anti-trans bill in the country.” Kentucky is not an aberration. At the same time, the United States celebrates tremendous progress in the movement to decriminalize cannabis, more than 400 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation have been introduced in statehouses around the country.
The progression of the LGBTQ movement and the cannabis justice movement are intricately intertwined, as activists in both movements have fought together for years. However, if we are to truly build an equitable and inclusive industry, the cannabis community must be vocal in its opposition to these acts of hate. This can’t be accomplished without the cannabis community taking an intersectional approach to the issue of cannabis justice.
Consider this. Mainstream cannabis justice research, rhetoric, and culture all too often exclude the voices and experiences of LGBTQ communities. It bears repeating that queer and trans people have been overrepresented in incarceration and arrest rates. When we take a closer look at the women most impacted by carceral systems of policing and punishment we see that queer and non-binary women are disproportionately impacted, making sexuality and gender identity factors that must be considered when trying to understand and solve criminal justice problems.
Last Prisoner Project’s Just Cannabis podcast, hosted by the organization’s Director of Impact, Mikelina Belaineh, creates a space for a discussion of these intersectional experiences. This way we can better understand how systems of policing and punishment distinctively and differently impact individuals who are LGBTQ.
In order to survive, LGBTQ individuals are often pushed toward criminalized behaviors such as selling and using cannabis, which increases their risk of arrest and confinement.
A Prison Policy Initiative analysis of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reveals, “that in 2019, gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals (with an arrest rate of 3,620 per 100,000) were 2.25 times as likely to be arrested in the past twelve months than straight individuals (with an arrest rate of 1,610 per 100,000).”
In trans populations, one in five (21%) trans women have experienced incarceration at some point in their lives. These statistics worsen when you account for race as nearly half (47%) of all Black trans people have been incarcerated.
And to be clear, these statistics likely undersell the disproportionate impact cannabis criminalization has on LGBTQ communities, as there is a shameful lack of data on the issue.
Given stigma and discrimination against LGBTQ individuals continues to run rampant in today’s cannabis community, it is important to acknowledge the power of solidarity when these two communities unite. This was evident in the recent push from public officials, cannabis leaders, and members of the LGBTQ community when they advocated for the release of basketball superstar Brittney Griner.
There is much work still to be done to make progress in both the cannabis justice movement and LGBTQ civil rights movement. My hope is that our collaboration makes that work a little easier.
Stephen Post is a Senior Communications Associate at Last Prisoner Project, a national, nonpartisan non-profit dedicated to cannabis criminal justice reform. We aim to release every last person incarcerated for cannabis, as well as to repair the harms of cannabis criminalization. We accomplish this through legal intervention, direct constituent support, advocacy campaigns, and policy change.
Even those of us in media serving the LGBTQ+ community were pleasantly surprised by the results from a recent Gallup study finding 1 in 5 of the rising Gen Z adults (ages 20-26) identifying as LGBTQ+. That means of the 82 million Gen Z Americans, an estimated 17 million identify as LGBTQ+. Never in the history of polling for LGBTQ+ identity have we seen such a staggering statistic from a single generation. When you compare the Gen Z queer identifiers at more than 20 percent for this rising group of new adults versus the older Gen X at identifying at only 4 percent, you can tell that we are in a massive generational shift and a renaissance around openness, authenticity, and living the happiest life possible to love who you love.
With such a massive embrace of alternative orientation taking place, why, then, are we seeing the rise of so much anti-LGBTQ+ legislation? Maybe the simple answer lies no farther than the parents of these queer Gen Zers for the rise of hate and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Here’s how it could be the driving force. And, furthermore, what we can do about it.
Let’s start with simple math and statistics of recent credible polls on LGBTQ+ people. By just focusing on the youngest of LGBTQ+ folks in the Gen Z sector or approximately 17 million, you can estimate each has 1.7 on average living parents, stepparents, and guardians in their lives — or about 30 million parental figures. We then apply voting statistics and other polling data starting with Pew Research in November 2022 that found 61 percent of American voters believe same-sex marriage is good for society. Multiplying 61 percent x 30 million parents, we can safely defend and probably generously state that 18.3 million of these parents are accepting, nurturing, and lovingly proud of their out and happy children.
On the other hand, Pew found that 37 percent of Americans believe same-sex marriage is negative for society. If applied to our 30 million estimated parental number, this leaves nearly 12 million parents whose beliefs and values run counter to their child(ren) identifying as LGBTQ+. There is little doubt that these people also vote and support anti-LGBTQ+ agendas of the GOP, their elected party representatives, and their propaganda machine, Fox News. If these 12 million parental supporters of hateful legislation are like the Republican party leadership and faced with self-perceived and conservative-media-reinforced failure as parents, they take no responsibility, seek someone to blame for making their child being queer and take out their fury in the anonymity of the voting booth by supporting anti-LGBTQ+ candidates (if not denying them appropriate medical treatment or throwing them out of their houses for just wanting to love who they want — or worse).
And even if just a fraction of my math approximating 12 million voting for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is all you’ll accept, a mere fraction is enough to sway local, state, and federal races in purple states like Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, and Ohio. And if we multiply the 12 million x 10 percent, which is roughly how many Florida residents make up the percentage of U.S. population, we get about 1.2 million parents in Florida, which is almost exactly the amount Governor DeSantis won by in his last election. And this is just factoring in the parents of LGBTQ+ kids voting against the rights of their own children, not the many more who also follow the governor’s misguided hate.
Logically, we know that this population of parents can’t make up 100 percent of DeSantis’s margin, but even a fraction of that could have added to his lead, influenced others and many in the state, making the GOP stronger in their hold on all Florida branches of government, with an almost endless supply of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation at their fingertips. Adding insult to injury, many states are following Florida step for step in banning books, discussions in classrooms, and drag shows. All the while, ocean tides increasingly rise around Florida visible to every resident. All the while, the state ranks among the worst for crime and gun deaths. All the while, rents in Dade County and many other Florida counties have skyrocketed 60 percent or more in the last two years. All the while, the state performs poorly on health care, mental health, and economic diversity, all while trans youth and drag queens are scapegoated as a real problem.
So how do we combat this possible and unexpected phenomenon of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation?
Perhaps, we need to start with those of us who are identifying as LGBTQ+ to work to convince our parents and loved ones that a vote against LGBTQ+ rights is a vote against their own loved ones. We should patiently and lovingly remind our anti-LGBTQ+ voting parents that they love us and only want for our happiness. And what would help give them even more love and happiness is voting for politicians who support LGBTQ+ rights. It will not be accomplished with one conversation; it will take many. It will not be accomplished with yelling or shutting them out. It will take love, gentle persuading, and keeping them part of your lives. Over time, I have watched my own father’s resolve soften to one of support.
Next, we may need to consider greatly enhancing phone line and local support for parents of LGBTQ+ people so they get education, compassion, and support in their local areas, local resources to help themselves and their children and support by way of groups and FB pages of other parents grappling with how to support their LGBTQ+ children. Otherwise, these shocked, confused and ignorant individuals fall prey to the steady drum beat of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric on outlets like Fox News and politicians from school boards to state houses and Capitol Hill putting forward or enacting hateful anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
Consider running for office or give just an hour a week to a candidate who supports LGBTQ+ rights. From school boards to the highest seats in the land, please consider running for office or more practically for many, supporting just one candidate in a pivotal race on your ballot with just one hour a week of volunteer time during the election cycle. Imagine if all of us gave just one hour a week to pro-LGBTQ+ candidates; we could turn the tide and make this a country one we can all take pride in.
Together, we can overcome this wave of hate by starting in our own families. Let’s bring a surge of love to douse the flames of hate.
Michael Kelley is chairman of equalpride, parent company of The Advocate.
The Republican-controlled House passed legislation Thursday that would ban transgender women and girls from competing in female school athletics — the latest GOP salvo in the intensifying culture wars over transgender rights in America.
The bill, authored by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., would amend Title IX to bar schools that receive federal funding from allowing people “whose sex is male” to participate in sports designated for women or girls.
The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act defines sex as “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
The bill passed on a 219-203vote, but it will go nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate. The White House has also said President Joe Biden would veto the measure, which “targets people for who they are and therefore is discriminatory,” if it were to make it to his desk.
Steube called on colleagues to support his bill in a floor speech on Wednesday. “Congress in 1972 created Title IX to protect women’s sports, to enable women to have an equal playing field in athletics, and in worship to their trans idols, the [Biden] administration wants to flip that on its head. It’s insane,” Steube said.
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., authored the bill targeting trans girls in sports.Tom Williams / CQ Roll Call via AP file
“Parents do not want biological men in locker rooms with their daughters, nor do they believe it’s equitable a male can compete with women in female athletics,” he added.
Democrats have accused Republicans of going after transgender people to build their political brand and raise cash from conservative donors. And they argue Steube’s bill would target and make life harder for people who already struggle with bullying, depression and thoughts of suicide.
The bill “makes school sports less fair by singling out and banning transgender women and girls as young as kindergarten from participating on school sports teams with their friends,” said Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., a leader of the Equality Caucus, which advocates for LGBTQ rights on Capitol Hill.
“We know transgender students already face widespread bullying and discrimination,” he said Wednesday. “Adding to their pain by targeting their participation in school sports is both wrong and dangerous.”
Republicans stepped up their political attacks on transgender athletes after University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who had competed on the men’s swim team, switched to the women’s team after she came out as a trans woman and became the first transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming championship.
Since then, more than a dozen GOP-led states have enacted bans on transgender athletes. Republicans have also pushed for state laws to restrict gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
The Biden administration weighed in this month by proposing new regulations that would prohibit categorical bans on trans athletes at schools receiving federal funding but allow some restrictions at more elite levels of competition.
The proposal summary says the rules should take into account differences in age, grade and level of competition.
The Education Department “expects that … elementary school students would generally be able to participate on school sports teams consistent with their gender identity where considerations may be different for competitive high school and college teams,” the summary says.
Sports leagues and teams often use Pride nights to raise the visibility and acceptance of LGBTQ people — as well as sell them tickets — and the NHL has been a leader. They can include special jerseys designed by LGBTQ artists, performances, information tables, even drag performances. And they’re largely a hit.
But six NHL players recently opted out of wearing rainbow-colored jerseys on their teams’ Pride nights for the first time, leading the league’s commissioner to say it is weighing the future of the events.
That worries some fans and LGBTQ supporters, who say it’s a sign that a political climate that has led to restrictions on expression, health care and transgender sports participation both in the U.S. and internationally is now threatening events that are meant to be fun and affirming.
“It’s definitely fair to say that this political landscape is helping to sort of normalize people for opting out of the optional ways that they have been asked to show support for marginalized members of society,” said Hudson Taylor, executive director and founder of Athlete Ally, an organization that works with teams and leagues to push for LGBTQ inclusivity.
Pro sports has been here before. In June, five pitchers with the Tampa Bay Rays cited their Christian faith in refusing to wear Pride jerseys, and a U.S. women’s national soccer player skipped an overseas trip in 2017 when the team wore Pride jerseys and also didn’t play in an NWSL game last year for the same reason.
This season, three NHL teams — the Chicago Blackhawks, the New York Rangers and the Minnesota Wild — that previously wore rainbow warmups decided not to. The Rangers and Wild changed course after initially planning for players to wear rainbow-themed warmup jerseys but did not specifically say why.
Between the players opting out and the team decisions, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the league will “evaluate” in the offseason how it handles Pride nights moving forward, calling the refusals a distraction from “the substance of our what our teams and we have been doing and stand for.” Yet he also noted that the NHL, teams and players “overwhelmingly” support Pride nights.
The NHL has partnered for a decade with You Can Play Project, which advocates for LGBTQ participation in sports. No NHL players had previously opted out of Pride nights.
Internationally, a Russian law that restricts “propaganda” about LGBTQ people, including in advertising, media and the arts, has led at least one Russian NHL player to decline participation in Pride night. And Ugandan lawmakers recently passed a bill prescribing jail terms for offenses related to same-sex relations.
It’s all connected, said Evan Brody, an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky whose media studies research often focuses on LGBTQ spaces in sports.
“The laws that are being passed, the players not participating, all exist within the same kind of ecosphere,” Brody said. “They all exist within this larger anti-LGBTQ discourse, which I think we are often very quick to point out about other countries and maybe less so to think about how that’s affecting things in the United States.”
In the NHL, many Pride nights are more about selling tickets, Taylor said. But because the league has been such a leader among men’s sports in how to do Pride nights well, he said, it’s “conspicuous” to see players and teams “roll back the ways in which they have historically shown support for and given visibility to the LGBTQ community.”
Buffalo Sabres Victor Olofsson, left, Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka wear special warmup jerseys commemorating Pride Night before a game against the Montreal Canadiens in Buffalo, N.Y., on March 27, 2023. Adrian Kraus / AP
Russian Ivan Provorov and Canadians James Reimer and brothers Eric and Marc Staal all cited religious beliefs for refusing to take part in warmups in rainbow-colored jerseys. Ilya Lyubushkin said he would not participate because of the law in Russia, where he was born. And Andrei Kuzmenko, another Russian player, decided not to wear the special uniform after discussions with his family.
“Some players choose to make choices that they are free to make,” Bettman said Thursday night at a news conference in Seattle. “That doesn’t mean they don’t respect other people and their beliefs and their lifestyles and who they are. It just means they don’t want to endorse it by wearing uniforms that they are not comfortable wearing.”
Taylor noted that the fear of Russian retribution could be “very real” for a player like Lyubushkin, who has family in Moscow and visits often.
“I don’t think the LGBTQ community should feel that NHL hockey players are turning their back on that community,” new NHL Players’ Association executive director Marty Walsh said. “A supermajority of players have worn the jersey.”
The Twin Cities Queer Hockey Association took part in the Minnesota Wild’s Pride night this season, with two teenage LGBTQ+ members of the association sitting on the bench during warmups, among other things.
Bennett-Danek, who cofounded the association with her wife in early 2022, said the Wild have “been nothing but supportive” of their organization and the community at large.
“Yes, canceling wearing the jerseys was wrong, but they did not cancel any other part of Pride night and they continue to support our group, even today,” Bennett-Danek said. “They are also handing over the Pride jerseys with signatures for auction to further help support our LGBTQIA community here in the Twin Cities. … So, in our mind they have righted the wrong. They have promised us that Pride next year will not be canceled.”
The NHL hasn’t given out a penalty or fine for anti-LGBTQ language since 2017, though the American Hockey League suspended a player in April 2022 for eight games for using homophobic language. And the vast majority of NHL players are participating in pregame Pride skates, which Edmonton’s Zach Hyman said is “an obvious no-brainer.”
“It doesn’t go against any of my beliefs,” Hyman said. “On the contrary, I think it’s extremely important to be open and welcoming to that greater community just because they’re a minority and they’ve faced a lot of persecution over the years. And to show that we care and that we’re willing and ready to include them in our game and our sport is extremely important to me.”
