The NHL has been the last league to embrace the Pride agenda fully. They also haven’t gone overboard regarding virtue signaling for the LGBTQ cause. Whether it is because many of their players are Eastern European and their religious beliefs cause some players to protest or be uncomfortable, or the league owners have pushed back, the NHL has yet to go full woke.
As Pride month nears its end and the NHL season is over, the league has announced that it will no longer have teams wear Pride or any other themed jerseys moving forward. The decision immediately angered advocate groups and leftist pundits despite the league applying the same standard to all themed events.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman spoke on the subject: “I suggested that it would be appropriate for clubs not to change their jerseys in warm-ups because it’s become a distraction and taking away from the fact that all of our clubs in some form or another host nights in honor of various groups or causes, and we’d rather them continue to get the appropriate attention that they deserve and not be a distraction.”
In short, Bettman saw the writing on the wall. Because of the pushback by some players, it was inevitable that the league would have agitators with an agenda next season when the league has themed nights to honor the military, etc. To get ahead of the likely cries of hypocrisy, Bettman decided no themed jerseys for anyone.
In January, NHL player Ivan Provorov refused to wear his team’s Pride jersey
He got smeared and attacked, but he did not back down
5 months later… the NHL is officially banning LGBTQ Pride jerseys
The lesson: Stand your ground pic.twitter.com/N1oLeA0mLU
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 23, 2023
What seems like a fair and balanced decision was naturally met with cries of ‘discrimination’ and ‘bigotry’ from the left. An organization called “You Can Play” which pressures sports leagues to employ members of the LGBTQ persuasion, immediately seized the moment: “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. The work to make locker rooms, board rooms and arenas safer, more diverse, and more inclusive needs to be ongoing and purposeful, and we will continue to work with our partners at the NHL, including individual teams, players, agents and the NHLPA to ensure this critical work continues.”
It is unclear when any hockey arena, especially in America, has been unsafe for gay people. The group advocates for diversity in the locker room and the board room, which is a dangerous proposition. It isn’t dangerous because of anyone’s sexual preference, rather professional sports teams should be employing the most qualified players, coaches, and executives. Winning is the goal, pun intended, of the NHL, and virtue-signaling diversity hires isn’t the way to win.
The group claims 95 percent of the players wanted to wear Pride jerseys. That is misleading in that 95 percent actually wore them without pushing back or risking negative publicity. If there were no threat of blowback, the actual number of players declining the themed rainbow jerseys would likely be much higher.
Bettman continued on the topic of themed nights: “All of those nights will continue. … The only difference will be is we’re not going to change jerseys for warm-ups because that’s just become more of a distraction from, really, the essence of what the purpose of these nights are.”
The league made a controversial yet correct and fair decision. The themed celebrations will continue, the players that object to rainbow jerseys won’t have to risk the fallout, and the players that are too cowardly to pushback now have an out.
Meanwhile, despite the acrimony from the left, hockey arenas will still let in anyone, gay or straight, that wants to buy a ticket just like they always have. It’s all about the action on the ice anyways, not the costumes the players wear.
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