NHL Sparks Criticism For Barring Players From Wearing Pride Jerseys On Ice During Warmups

Topline

Months after several players refused to wear LGBTQ Pride jerseys during pre-game warmups, the National Hockey League announced a ban on wearing specialty jerseys on the ice—the latest sports-related controversy this Pride month—effectively banning jerseys for Pride and other causes like cancer awareness and Black history.

Key Facts

Chief Critics

Former Calgary Flames player Akim Aliu criticized the decision as “absolutely shameful” and accused the NHL of “bowing down to hate” in a Thursday evening tweet. “You pretend to care for diversity & social causes but everyone knows you don’t,” Aliu tweeted. In 2019, Aliu accused then-Flames head coach Bill Peters of using racial slurs toward him in the locker room. You Can Play, an organization founded to combat homophobia in sports, said it is “concerned and disappointed” by the decision, which it stated will prevent the “over 95% of players who chose to wear a Pride jersey” from doing so. Allan Walsh, co-managing director of Octagon Hockey, a sports marketing and management company, called the decision “gutless” and lamented its impact on all of “Pride Night, Military Appreciation, Hockey Fights Cancer, [and] Black History.” Some sports journalists condemned the NHL’s decision, including Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur, who said the NHL “separated players from all special jerseys, during Pride month, as anti LGBTQ+ hostility surges, all to protect some bigots.” The Hockey News writer Ian Kennedy condemned the NHL’s decision as the real distraction, not the wearing of Pride jerseys, and The Athletic writer Shayna Goldman criticized the NHL for not being able to “get out of their own way.”

Contra

The NHL’s announcement was met with congratulatory reactions from others, including right-wing social media users. Popular right-wing Twitter account “End Wokeness,” with more than 1.3 million followers, praised then-Philadelphia Flyers player Ivan Provorov for refusing to wear a Pride jersey because of his Russian Orthodox religious beliefs. “The lesson: Stand your ground,” End Wokeness claimed. “Sanity is coming back to sports,” right-wing Dear America podcast host Graham Allen tweeted. Some conservatives spread misinformation on social media about the announcement. Right-wing Twitter user Keean Bexte—whose bio claims he is a journalist—erroneously tweeted the NHL will cancel Pride nights, earning thousands of likes. Bettman reportedly confirmed Pride nights will continue with the 2023-2024 season, just without Pride jerseys worn during pre-game warmups.

Key Background

Provorov became the first in a series of players to refuse to wear the Pride jerseys in January. He sat out during the warmup in which members of his team wore Pride jerseys, but clarified he respected “everybody’s choices.” Marc and Eric Staal of the Florida Panthers and San Jose Sharks goalie James Reimer declined to wear the jersey in March, both citing religious beliefs. Other players, Ilya Lyubushkin of the Buffalo Sabres, Denis Gurianov of the Montreal Canadiens and Andrei Kuzmenko of the Vancouver Canucks, who are Russian, also declined to wear the jersey. The Chicago Blackhawks barred its players from wearing the jerseys at its Pride night because of Russian anti-gay laws that could have threatened its Russian players and their families if they wore the jersey, despite disappointment from coach Luke Richardson and players.

Tangent

Major sports leagues have been a frequent subject of controversy during Pride month and the ongoing culture wars targeting the LGBTQ community. In May, the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team uninvited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a religious-themed drag group and charity organization, from its Pride night after facing criticism from conservative Catholic advocacy group CatholicVote, who accused the group of “anti-Catholic hate.” The group, which performs in drag as nuns, was set to receive the Community Hero Award for community service. After backlash from LGBTQ groups, including other partners of the Dodgers who threatened to pull out of Pride night, the Dodgers issued an apology and re-invited the Sisters to the event. Major League Baseball and NASCAR also garnered some criticism on social media after making celebratory posts for Pride month. After receiving backlash for changing its Facebook profile picture to a rainbow-colored logo, the MLB reverted the picture back to normal by the second day of Pride month. Right-wing anger over companies and organizations deemed “woke” for outreach to the LGBTQ community has intensified following Bud Light’s brief partnership with transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney in April, which sparked a boycott that has since targeted a still-growing list of companies including Target, Kohl’s and Cracker Barrel.

Further Reading

Navy Removes Pride Month Posts Amid Right-Wing Backlash— Nascar, Major League Baseball Also Targeted (Forbes)

Dodgers Reverse Decision: Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence Included In LGBTQ Pride Night Over Objections (Forbes)

Definitive Guide To The Anti-‘Woke’ Protests: From Bud Light To Target To The U.S. Navy—And Everyone Else (Forbes)