This weekend was the annual Pride Cup – the annual Battle of Alberta for the province’s 2SLGBTQ+-focused ice hockey teams. The event aims to be more than just a ball hockey championship, but a chance to promote diversity, equality and inclusion in sport.
Leading up to this year’s championship, two main games were held: the first was filled with community leaders, and the second with 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 on an NHL contract.
“It’s something I would have wished for as a child,” said Prokop. “I wish I could have seen a man on TV playing in the NHL and said, ‘Hey, that’s me.'”
Though the event takes place during Pride month — Edmonton hosted its Pride celebrations this weekend — the event hopes to spread its message throughout the year, a sentiment reinforced by one of its biggest partners, Pride Tape.
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“Pride month is wonderful and we’re getting a lot of attention and thanks to so many wonderful organizations that believe in what we do and our message of inclusion. But it doesn’t stop at the end of the month,” proclaimed Jeff McLean, co-founder of Pride Tape.
“Visibility is important and it’s important that we keep them in the sport they love because too many young people give up the sport early,” McLean said. “It’s important that the sport loves her again.”
“We hear stories of people being kicked off their teams for coming out as gay, queer, lesbian or transgender, and we’re here to create that safe space where everyone is welcome,” said Brett Stamm, President of Edmonton Rage, the city government including the ice hockey team. That’s why it’s so important that teams like Rage and events like the Pride Cup last year-round, he added.
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According to Kristopher Wells of McEwan University, this type of visibility is needed now more than ever.
The director of the Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity says we’re getting the community we want to build and points out events like the Pride Cup are needed to show hate has no place, especially as it grows Number of hate crimes targeting the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
“We often focus on the professional leagues, but the real change is happening in the grassroots community,” Wells said.
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– with files from Mason DePatie, Global News
1:33The first Two-Spirit Powwow of the Edmonton Pride Festival
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