There's been a trend this NHL season that has nothing to do with the sport's on-ice product. Several teams have announced plans to hold Pride Nights, during which players wear jerseys celebrating the LGBTQ+ community either during warmups or games -- or both.But many of those plans have been scraped by teams after being made public....As the Athletic notes, five percent of the NHL's players are Russian."These are legitimate fears," Ben Noble, associate professor of Russian politics at University College London, told the Athletic. "'If you put on a Pride jersey, then there is uncertainty regarding how this would be interpreted by law enforcement in Russia — and that's a risk.
June:
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman says the league will no longer have teams wear themed jerseys during warmups for Pride Nights or any specialty night games going forward.
Don’t you see? The NHL had a problem, and it had to solve it. NHL teams have been holding Pride nights for 10 years and ... uh, OK, there was no problem for pretty much all of that. The first NHL Pride Night was in Florida in 2013, and for almost a decade it was a lovely little inclusive thing, along with other nights: Hockey Fights Cancer, Military Appreciation and more — from Indigenous celebration nights across Canada, to South Asian Heritage Night in Winnipeg, to Gender Equity Night in New Jersey.
CBS:
Arizona Coyotes defenseman Travis Dermott recently became the first player to challenge the NHL's ban of Pride Tape when he used it on his stick in a game against the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday. Following Dermott's decision, the NHL has rescinded its ban on players using Pride Tape, the league announced on Tuesday...."It was kind of just an, 'All right, I'm doing this, and we're going to deal with the consequences and move forward, and hopefully I'll have a positive impact on some people that needed that positive impact.'"
Pride Tape is back because Travis Dermott, a completely expendable defenceman on a one-year deal just above the league minimum, had the balls to stand up for his convictions at what could have been at a cost to his career. https://t.co/vOZlwwU6WO pic.twitter.com/Wz2FkJTqa3
— Mike Beauvais (@MikeBeauvais) October 24, 2023
Supposedly Scholastic is reconsidering appeasement, too--I haven't seen this written up anywhere, and their most recent press release is still justifying their appeasement strategy:
Scholastic has sent a letter apologizing, reversing the program, and redoubling efforts to combat book banning legislation. Thank you to all who signed and shared the statement which helped instigate forward momentum for Scholastic's decision. 👏 pic.twitter.com/uoZx0mNSxu
— Vicky Fang (@fangmous) October 24, 2023
Ok but "we understand now that it was a mistake to segregate..." is one of the funniest sentences I've read in the year of our Lordicus 2023 pic.twitter.com/Y2GnY0iKGh
— Daniel José Older (@djolder) October 25, 2023