NHL players survey shows 34 of 35 players would be accepting of gay teammate
An anonymous poll of NHL players showed some encouraging answers for LGBT sports advocates. According to a USA TODAY Sports survey, 34 of 35 anonymous players said they would be accepting of an openly gay teammate.
Hockey is the only sport of the four major sports to not have any athlete affiliated with a potential professional career come out as openly gay. Baseball recently saw minor leaguer David Denson come out as gay, while both Jason Collins of the NBA and Michael Sam of the NFL came out as gay in 2014. Collins is thus far the only player to record playing time on a professional roster during the regular season after coming out.
The NHL has aligned itself with LGBT rights activism in the past, as it announced a partnership with the You Can Play project, an organization devoted to promoting respect and equal rights to all athletes regardless of sexual orientation, in 2013. The organization was formed partly as a tribute to Brendan Burke, son of Calgary Flames president Brian Burke. Brendan passed away in a car accident in 2010, and he was a student manager of the Miami University men's hockey team who came out as gay to his teammates just months before his death.
Brian Burke and the entire Burke family have carried on Brendan's legacy by advocating for gay rights while helping the You Can Play project grow. As such, the recent player survey support is an encouraging sign that those efforts are making an impact.
"I’m not surprised by that," Burke said to USA Today of the statistics revealed by the poll. “I’m disappointed by the one player. I don’t think our players have an issue with gay players. I think the first player to come out is going to find an unbelievably welcome reception. I think my generation has a bigger problem than their generation when it comes views on the gay community."
Burke told USA Today that the interest among NHL players in the You Can Play promotional videos has been so strong that players who weren't initially asked to become involved were angry that they weren't asked.
"Guys were insulted that we didn’t ask them," Burke told USA Today. "That’s when I thought, ‘Wow, we are farther ahead than I thought."
(h/t USA Today)
