This weekend marked the annual Pride Cup — the annual Battle of Alberta for the province’s 2SLGBTQ+-focused hockey teams. The event aims to be more than just a ball hockey championship, but a chance to support diversity, equity and inclusion in sport.
There were two feature games ahead of this year’s championship: the first was filled with community leaders with the second made up of WHL and NHL alumni.
It’s also a chance for young 2SLGBTQ+ players to see their role models in action, like Luke Prokop, the first player to be openly gay under an NHL contract.
“That’s something I wish I had growing up,” Prokop said. “I wish I could’ve looked on TV and, you know, seen a guy playing in the NHL and say, ‘Hey, that’s me.’”
Despite taking place during Pride month — Edmonton held its Pride celebrations this weekend — the event hopes to spread its message year-round, a sentiment reinforced by one of its biggest partners, Pride Tape.
“Pride month is wonderful and we get a lot of attention and thanks goes out to a lot of wonderful organizations that believe in what we are doing and our message of inclusion. But it doesn’t stop at the end of the month,” proclaimed Jeff McLean, cofounder of Pride Tape.
“Visibility matters and it’s important that — with too many young people dropping out of the sport early on — we keep them in the sport that they love,” McLean said. “It’s important that the sport loves them back.”
“We hear stories of people being kicked off their team because they come out as gay or queer or lesbian or trans, and we’re there to create that safe place where everyone’s welcome,” said Brett Stamm, president of Edmonton Rage, the city’s inclusive hockey team. That’s why it’s so critical for teams like Rage and events like Pride Cup to exist year-round, he added.
According to McEwan University’s Kristopher Wells, this type of visibility is needed now more than ever.
The Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity director says we get the community we are willing to build, noting events like the Pride Cup are needed to show hate has no place, especially with increasing numbers of hate crimes directed towards the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
“We often focus on the professional leagues, but the real change happens in the community at the grass roots,” Wells said.
— with files from Mason DePatie, Global News