The NHL has issued a sweeping ban against themed party gear on ice, prohibiting clubs from requiring players to wear rainbow sweaters or using multi-colored tape on sticks during Pride Night, for example, officials confirmed Tuesday.
The move, first reported Monday by the LGBTQ news site Outdoor sportsfollows a 2022-23 season in which a handful of players – including Ivan Provorov, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman and then-San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer – refused to take part in their clubs’ Pride Night celebrations.
Outsports called the NHL’s new directive “the most stifling anti-LGBTQ policy a professional sports league in North America has ever issued.”
Representatives for the NHL and players’ union did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly confirmed to the Associated Press On Tuesday, the league sent a memo to all 32 clubs with updated guidelines prohibiting any uniforms or on-ice equipment used during warmups from including any theme party celebrations.
Kurt Weaver, the chief operating officer of the You can play the projecttold NBC News that the league-wide memo was sent to clubs on Thursday. You can play is a partner of the NHL and its “Hockey is for Everyone” campaign, aimed at eradicating homophobia and spreading the game to underrepresented groups.
Weaver said league officials confirmed to him that teams would be prohibited from requiring players to wear Pride sweaters or have rainbow ribbon on their sticks.
“When you start stripping away our most visible representations, what carries the most weight in the message are those heroes that you see on the ice standing up for what they believe in and what they believe is right,” Weaver said. “And getting them off the ice is a difficult task.”
Weaver praised the years of effort by the NHL, teams and players to combat homophobia, but admitted last week’s league memo was a bitter pill to swallow.
“It’s hard to reconcile that right now, with decisions like this. But I see too many great things that clubs are doing, that hockey is doing in general. It’s success after success,” he said. “But all of this is currently being overshadowed by a very bad decision that will take over all of this good work.”
Jeff McLean, spokesperson for Pride band, said the company was “extremely disappointed by the NHL’s decision” to ban its product from on-ice activities this season. The company looks forward to better days.
“We hope that the league – and the teams – will once again demonstrate their commitment to this important symbol in the fight against homophobia,” the company said. “Many of the players themselves have been outstanding defenders of the stripe.”
The NHL’s recent communication to clubs also left the door open for players to object to being “in proximity” to people or groups they might consider “associated” with causes they do not support, Outsports reported.
“Players should not be placed in the position of having to demonstrate (or where they may appear to demonstrate) their personal support for special initiatives. A factor that may be considered in this regard includes, for example, whether a player (or players) must be in proximity to any group or individual visibly or otherwise clearly associated with such special initiatives,” the league reportedly told clubs, Outsports reported.
The potential “proximity” policy caused Anaheim Ducks organist Lindsay Imber to wonder aloud whether she could, in theory, be kicked out of her Honda Center nest because of her gender identity.
“At the executive level, we just don’t have representation, and if we don’t have representation up there, they don’t know us,” she said Tuesday. “So the people making these decisions don’t have that perspective, which leads to exclusionary policies.”
The puck drops for the 2023-24 NHL regular season on Tuesday with a trio of opening games as the Nashville Predators visit the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Chicago Blackhawks hit the road to face the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Seattle Kraken watch the Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights. raise a championship banner in Las Vegas.
Polly DeFrank contributed.
