Having spent some time recently examining the NHL’s and NHLPA’s collective negligence about headshots, I was inspired to address the homophobia that surrounds hockey fandom last night. Sure the Canucks lost, but before that, someone called them a bunch of faggles in Twitterland. How did that all go down, and what hope is there that the NHL actually cares about combating mindless, ignorant bigotry and homophobia? Read about it after the jump.
Continue reading Challenging Homophobic NHL Fans
Greg Walsh has been suspended for over two weeks now by the Ontario Minor Hockey Association after his team decided to leave the ice after one of their players was subjected to racist hate speech in the penalty box.
If the OMHA is at all more interested in the bureaucratic violation of a team not completing a 60 minute game than hate speech during the game, then quite a few people will need to realign their sense of morality, justice and community.
Hockey is definitely important as a sport, as a team- and character-building activity and as a community event. But when the game itself ends up being more important than the behaviour and character of the people playing the game, we have a case of broken priorities.
In about 9 hours, Don Cherry will be sharing his wisdom during Hockey Night in Canada. If he’s smart he will bring up this story and unambiguously assert the moral that there is no place for hate speech in hockey. Period.