These thoughts were written by Sophie, one of our 2020 summer interns. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue.
Brief update: The Blues, along with eight other teams, are now officially supporting “Pride” logos. You Can Play under a Pride logo for the remainder of June. And somewhere, that kid and I and hundreds of others are lacing up rollerblades and hitting the pavement, prideful of our team and their beautiful “Pride” logo.
There’s only five or so days left in June, which means there’s only five or so days left in Pride Month. And that means big companies only have to sweat out five more days of pandering to the LGBTQ+ community. Just one more week of flying that Pride Flag and then everything can go back to comfortable normalcy. One can almost see the corporate executives sweating as the clock runs down, just waiting for the performance to end so the company can stop pandering and instead go back to courting their usual customers…you know, not the gay ones.
And, before we get into the meat of this piece, I do have a problem with performance and pandering. I do think that companies who fly a Pride Flag during Pride Month should also donate to pro-LGBTQ+ advocacy and outreach groups. I do think that those companies should lobby for LGBTQ+ protections and threaten boycotts when states pass discriminatory legislation. In short, I do think that companies should and must go beyond pandering and performance if they are going to appear to be pro-LGBTQ+ during Pride.
But dang it if that performance piece doesn’t go a long way. Or, at least, I notice when that pandering piece is missing and when the easiest performance of all isn’t taken.
There are 31 teams in the National Hockey League (NHL). All 31 teams have Instagram and Twitter (and probably other social media but these are the two I’m focusing on). All 31 of these teams have a You Can Play representative, meaning that all 31 teams have made a commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion within the sport of hockey.
Which means, technically, that all of these teams agreed to pander and perform and at least pretend an LGBTQ+ individual can play hockey at the highest level and that individual will be welcomed.
Trust me, I know that’s a lie. I’ve read Akim Aliu’s brilliantly written and intensely horrific “Hockey is Not For Everyone” article. Aliu’s account focuses explicitly on the racism that runs rampant and unchecked in the NHL and his personal experiences within the league. He also points out the intense homophobia found in the league.
But if I knew all that then why did it hurt so badly to find out that the Philadelphia Flyers had changed their logo from “normal” to “Pride” on their social media platforms?
Maybe because I follow the Blues on all my social media and didn’t notice their icon precisely because the organization didn’t change their profile pictures to reflect Pride Month. I assumed, wrongly, that no team in the NHL was making efforts to pander. I thought, well, no one is playing right now, so no one thought to change any icons. I decided, unconsciously, that since Hockey is For Everyone month was over, there would be no LGBTQ+ outreach.
Yet, I was upset. I was surprised at how upset I was.
Worse, I knew I shouldn’t be upset. The Blues were the only team who elected to have their Hockey is For Everyone night be an away game where the players wouldn’t have to use pride tape or play in front of a home crowd. They wanted a watch party, not an actual night celebrating, including, and uplifting their LGBTQ+ fans and potential future players.
You Can Play but not when we’re watching.
Okay. So the Flyers changed their logo. The Blues didn’t. Maybe it was just a fluke, maybe it was just the Flyers, maybe it wasn’t the league. Right? Wrong.
Of the 31 teams in the NHL, only ten have no Pride logo up. Nine have not put one up all June. Three have Pride logos that require looking closely, but they’re still there. One has a Pride logo on Twitter, but none on Instagram. Besides the Blues, only the Nashville Predators do not have a Pride logo in the Central Division.
So, it wasn’t just a fluke, it wasn’t just the Flyers, it really was the whole League, or at least the vast majority of the League. Hockey was, performatively at least, for everyone…minus ten teams out of 31.
And I hear the question echoing: what does it matter? It’s a profile picture. If the whole League is homophobic then shouldn’t we appreciate that at least some teams aren’t going to pander and are going to tell it like it is? Shouldn’t we be glad that some kid isn’t going to grow up with rose colored glasses because they see a “Pride” logo and think it means that there isn’t homophobia in hockey?
I’m 20 years old. I started learning how to play hockey after the Blues won the 2019 Stanley Cup. I’ll never play in a professional league and I’d never play in the NHL even if I had started hockey as a kid and been good enough to compete. I’m a woman—I’d play in the National Women’s Hockey League.
But there is a little kid somewhere, looking at the same profile picture, feeling that same sense of exclusion and they could someday play in the NHL. There’s a kid somewhere who spends his days pretending to be a St. Louis Blue—maybe Pietrangelo, maybe Perron, maybe our current You Can Play representative Ryan O’Reilly—and he’s looking at that profile picture and he knows that his heroes won’t even pander.
I want that kid to keep playing hockey. I want that kid to keep loving the St. Louis Blues. I want that kid to work hard, dream big, get drafted, and change hockey culture. I want him to love the sport as much as he can and, more importantly, I want the sport to love him back. To love him because he can play and because he’s gay or bi or trans or wherever on the spectrum he is.
And I want the Blues to perform for this kid. I want the Blues to pander to this kid, and the millions like him. I want the Blues to change that profile picture for the month of June.
Because here’s the thing about performance: sometimes it leads to actual, real, tangible…change. The “Pride” profile picture normalizes an NHL team supporting LGBTQ+ issues in the same way that companies flying Pride flags normalizes being gay. By changing the public perception to make it seem like the vast majority of people support LGBTQ+ rights, public perception changes. It pretends at acceptance until that acceptance becomes reality.
Let’s be honest: at 12, the hypothetical kid I’m talking about already knows there’s homophobia in hockey. He or she knows that there will be teammates, coaches, fans who will never respect them because of their sexuality. To deny that is to deny the reality of being gay.
That kid doesn’t need another reminder that they are not wanted or respected by the League. That kid needs a performance. A profile picture featuring the “Pride” logo means that the organization superficially cares about that promise that You Can Play. The performance means that the organization can be changed; it’s appearance might become the reality.
Someday there will be an LGBTQ+ player for the Blues. A “Pride” logo won’t be the reason, of course, but it might be part of the reason he didn’t quit playing.
