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One person taking a stand can trigger a chain reaction big enough to make a difference.

Such is the case with the North American professional ice hockey league, National Hockey League (NHL), which may now reconsider holding pride-themed jersey nights promoting the LGBT movement due to the growing number of players and teams opting out for personal reasons.

It all started with Philadelphia Flyers’ Ivan Provorov, who chose not to join the team’s ‘Pride Night’ pre-game warm-up in January because of his Russian Orthodox faith:

“I respect everybody and respect everybody’s choice. My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion.”

Despite being labelled a homophobe and a bigot – among other pleasantries – Provorov’s stance was just the beginning of a ripple effect that pushed the NHL into a corner.

The Chain Reaction

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman suggested that holding future pride events in the face of player opposition is something the league “will have to evaluate in the offseason”.

“This is one issue where players for a variety of reasons may not feel comfortable wearing the uniform as a form of endorsement”, Bettman told CTV Ottawa.”

“But I think that’s become more of a distraction now, because the substance of what our teams and we have been doing and [standing] for is really being pushed to the side for what is a handful of players [who] basically have made personal decisions, and you have to respect that as well.”

The San Jose Sharks’ James Reimer, as well as teammates and brothers Eric and Marc Staal from the Florida Panthers, have also cited religious reasons for opting out of the move to push an ideology and lifestyle that is contrary to their beliefs.

Other players, including Buffalo Sabres’ Ilya Lyubushkin, have cited reasons of legal and security concerns, referring to new legislation in Russia that bans citizens from promoting “LGBTQ propaganda”. The Chicago Blackhawks team have also announced they will not wear pride-themed jerseys during warm-ups, out of concern for the safety of their Russian-born players.

Despite hosting and celebrating ‘Pride Night’, the Minnesota Wild and New York Rangers have also opted out of wearing the jerseys.

Name of the Game

The push to promote the LGBT movement in sport is also making headlines around the world, including Australia. A notable example was the Manly boycott on July 28, 2022 when seven rugby players from the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles refused to wear pride jerseys during a match, and were then pulled out of the game, making the club as ‘inclusive’ as it boasts to be.

‘Taking the knee” during the national anthem, which players claim is in protest of racism, has also become commonplace on the sports field in recent years. But instead of truly addressing the issue of unjust racial discrimination, the act of ‘taking the knee’ has become another symbolic tool to insert politics where it does not belong and bolster a culture affirmed by groupthink, power dynamics and identity politics.

If the NHL truly abandons its rainbow campaigns – and other professional sport organisations follow suit instead of taking the easy route of apologising and pandering – they will start to wake up from a woke agenda that makes a spokesperson out of a sportsperson and reduces players to mere gears in a propaganda machine, especially those with strong religious convictions.

All it took was one brave man who did not cave in to pride peer pressure. All it takes is a single person standing up for what is right to encourage a multitude to do the same and ultimately bring about change.

And as profits dip and more athletes speak up, sports organisations will realise – like the NHL seems to – that LGBT advocacy through events like rainbow-themed nights is a “distraction” from sport wherein entertainment, not politics, should be the name of the game.

The left has taken virtually every institution, politicised it, and made it theirs. Will we let them own sports and entertainment too?

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Photo by Pixabay.