The Toronto Maple Leafs won鈥檛 wear themed warmup jerseys for the team鈥檚 annual Pride night celebration Tuesday.
The organization has held Pride nights in support of the LGBTQ community since 2017, but has never sported special warmup jerseys.
The Leafs say rainbow stick tape will be available to players during the pre-game skate, and the team has a number of other events planned throughout the night.
Toronto players and head coach Sheldon Keefe donned rainbow-themed T-shirts during a Tuesday morning media availability before facing the Columbus Blue Jackets.
A small group of NHLers have declined to wear Pride warmup jerseys this season, including Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Ivan Provorov, San Jose Sharks goalie James Reimer, Eric and Marc Staal of the Florida Panthers, and Buffalo Sabres blue-liner Ilya Lyubushkin.
Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly has marched in Toronto鈥檚 Pride parade along with general manager Kyle Dubas and team president Brendan Shanahan in the past.
鈥淚 believe actions speak louder than words,鈥� Rielly said Tuesday. 鈥淎nd especially speak louder than attire.鈥�
The Leafs will have Pride decals on their helmets, but Russian goaltender Ilya Samsonov isn鈥檛 expected to wear one on the back of his mask.
Sports leagues and teams often use Pride nights to raise the visibility and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people 鈥� as well as sell them tickets 鈥� and the NHL has been a leader. They can include special jerseys designed by LGBTQ+ artists, performances, information tables, even drag performances. And they鈥檙e largely a hit.
But six NHL players recently opted out of wearing rainbow-colored jerseys on their teams鈥� Pride nights for the first time, leading the league鈥檚 commissioner to say it is weighing the future of the events.
That worries some fans and LGBTQ+ supporters, who say it鈥檚 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.
鈥淚t鈥檚 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,鈥� 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鈥檚 national soccer player skipped an overseas trip in 2017 when the team wore Pride jerseys and also didn鈥檛 play in an NWSL game last year for the same reason.
This season, three NHL teams 鈥� the Chicago Blackhawks, the New York Rangers and the Minnesota Wild 鈥� 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 鈥渆valuate鈥� in the offseason how it handles Pride nights moving forward, calling the refusals a distraction from 鈥渢he substance of our what our teams and we have been doing and stand for.鈥�
Yet he also noted that the NHL, teams and players 鈥渙verwhelmingly鈥� 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.
The changes come as Republican lawmakers across the U.S. pursue several hundred proposals this year to push back on LGBTQ+, and particularly transgender, rights. At the same time, international sports-governing bodies are instituting policies that ban all trans athletes from competing in track and field and effectively ban trans women from swimming events.
Internationally, a Russian law that restricts 鈥減ropaganda鈥� 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鈥檚 all connected, said Evan Brody, an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky whose media studies research often focuses on LGBTQ+ spaces in sports.
鈥淭he laws that are being passed, the players not participating, all exist within the same kind of ecosphere,鈥� Brody said. 鈥淭hey 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鈥檚 affecting things in the United States.鈥�
In the NHL, many Pride nights are more about selling tickets, Taylor said. But because the league has been such a leader among men鈥檚 sports in how to do Pride nights well, he said, it鈥檚 鈥渃onspicuous鈥� to see players and teams 鈥渞oll back the ways in which they have historically shown support for and given visibility to the LGBTQ community.鈥�
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.
鈥淪ome players choose to make choices that they are free to make,鈥� Bettman said Thursday night at a news conference in Seattle. 鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 mean they don鈥檛 respect other people and their beliefs and their lifestyles and who they are. It just means they don鈥檛 want to endorse it by wearing uniforms that they are not comfortable wearing.鈥�
Taylor noted that the fear of Russian retribution could be 鈥渧ery real鈥� for a player like Lyubushkin, who has family in Moscow and visits often.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think the LGBTQ community should feel that NHL hockey players are turning their back on that community,鈥� new NHL Players鈥� Association executive director Marty Walsh said. 鈥淎 supermajority of players have worn the jersey.鈥�
The Twin Cities Queer Hockey Association took part in the Minnesota Wild鈥檚 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 鈥渂een nothing but supportive鈥� of their organization and the community at large.
鈥淵es, 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,鈥� Bennett-Danek said. 鈥淭hey are also handing over the Pride jerseys with signatures for auction to further help support our LGBTQIA community here in the Twin Cities. 鈥� So, in our mind they have righted the wrong. They have promised us that Pride next year will not be canceled.鈥�
The NHL hasn鈥檛 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鈥檚 Zach Hyman said is 鈥渁n obvious no-brainer.鈥�
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 go against any of my beliefs,鈥� Hyman said. 鈥淥n the contrary, I think it鈥檚 extremely important to be open and welcoming to that greater community just because they鈥檙e a minority and they鈥檝e faced a lot of persecution over the years. And to show that we care and that we鈥檙e willing and ready to include them in our game and our sport is extremely important to me.鈥�
鈥擡rica Hunzinger, The Associated Press, with a file from CP
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