NHL’s Pride Night Controversy: The Gap Between Performance and Progress

The National Hockey League finds itself navigating turbulent waters as it attempts to balance performative allyship with substantive change in addressing homophobia and transphobia within the sport. While the league has publicly embraced LGBTQ+ inclusion through partnerships with Pride organizations across the United States, Canada, and Australia, as well as its long-standing collaboration with the You Can Play initiative since 2013, recent developments suggest a significant disconnect between rhetoric and reality.

The Pride Night Paradox

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman’s recent admission that he “binged” Heated Rivalry—a popular hockey romance novel featuring a gay relationship between two professional players—during a single night generated considerable buzz. Bettman’s enthusiasm for the book, coupled with his assertion that all NHL teams host Pride nights, initially appeared to signal genuine progress. However, as reported by The New York Times, this claim no longer holds true, with several teams abandoning dedicated Pride events in favor of more generic inclusivity initiatives.

This retreat from explicit LGBTQ+ celebration comes at a time when the league is preparing to host its third annual Pride Cup in 2026, creating an apparent contradiction between its public-facing commitments and on-the-ground practices. The discrepancy raises fundamental questions about whether the NHL’s approach to inclusion represents authentic cultural transformation or merely strategic marketing.

Academic Perspective: Performance Over Progress

Teresa Fowler, associate professor at Concordia University of Edmonton, offers a particularly incisive critique of the league’s approach. “Where’s your gay friend on your team? You know what I mean?” Fowler asks pointedly. “It just seems so hypocritical when people are saying, ‘Yeah, we would welcome them,’ and yet, the person who they call their brother, you know, that they would do anything for, is too afraid to bare their soul.”

Fowler’s assessment frames the NHL’s embrace of Heated Rivalry as performative allyship—a surface-level engagement with LGBTQ+ issues that fails to address the underlying cultural barriers preventing actual queer athletes from feeling safe enough to come out. This critique cuts to the heart of a persistent challenge in professional sports: the gap between symbolic gestures and meaningful change.

The Toxic Underbelly of Hockey Culture

The problems extend far beyond Pride night celebrations. Fowler and Tim Skuce, associate professor at Brandon University, have conducted extensive research into hockey culture in Canada, publishing a comprehensive 2023 study that interviewed 21 elite players from junior A level and higher, including current and former NHL players. Their findings paint a disturbing picture of entrenched toxic masculinity and exclusionary practices.

Central to their research is the pervasive nature of hazing rituals within hockey culture. “They would make players dress up like women, and then go into a shopping mall and sing ‘My Little Teapot.’ They would have notches in their belts for sexual conquest,” Fowler explains. “But then, of course, there’s the more physical [hazing rituals]: drag your testicles across the rink naked, get in bathrooms naked.”

These rituals, according to Fowler, serve as “sexism rituals, misogynistic rituals, where you’re constantly demeaning women.” The explicit connection between these hazing practices and broader cultural homophobia becomes clear: when femininity and womanhood are consistently degraded as part of team bonding, any association with queerness becomes inherently threatening to the established power structures within the sport.

Institutional Failures and Accountability Gaps

The systemic nature of these problems extends beyond individual teams to the highest levels of hockey governance. A 2022 Globe and Mail investigation revealed that Hockey Canada, the sport’s national governing body, had been using players’ registration fees to cover uninsurable liabilities, including sexual assault settlements. This revelation came in the context of serious criminal allegations, including a case where five former Canadian Junior Hockey players were acquitted of sexually assaulting a woman at a hotel room in London, Ontario.

The institutional response to these scandals has been characterized by deflection and damage control rather than substantive reform. Hockey Canada’s failure to respond to WIRED’s request for comment on these issues speaks volumes about the organization’s approach to accountability.

The Fear Factor: Why Players Stay Silent

Tim Skuce, drawing from his own experience playing university and AAA hockey, identifies a crucial dynamic that perpetuates toxic culture: the fear of speaking out. “A lot of the men I’ve interviewed said they felt uncomfortable with the hazing but they didn’t want to say anything about it,” Skuce notes. “Team belonging is predicated on going along with what’s happening.”

This dynamic creates a self-reinforcing cycle where problematic behaviors continue unchallenged because the social cost of opposition is perceived as too high. The result is a culture that claims to welcome diversity while simultaneously creating conditions where anyone who deviates from the norm faces implicit or explicit pressure to conform or leave.

Looking Forward: The Olympic Spotlight and Trans Athletes

As the Olympics bring international attention to sports, the issue of trans inclusion has once again moved to the forefront of cultural debate. Browne, co-author of the 2025 book Let Us Play: Winning the Battle for Gender-Diverse Athletes, describes the current climate as a “moral panic” that has created significant barriers for trans and non-binary athletes seeking to participate in competitive sports.

The intersection of these various issues—hazing, homophobia, transphobia, and institutional corruption—points to a sport in crisis, struggling to reconcile its traditional culture with evolving social values. The NHL’s challenge is not merely to host Pride nights or celebrate gay romance novels, but to fundamentally transform the culture that has allowed toxic behaviors to flourish for generations.

The question that remains is whether the league has the will to move beyond performative gestures toward genuine cultural change—or whether the gap between rhetoric and reality will continue to widen, leaving LGBTQ+ athletes and fans alike questioning the authenticity of hockey’s commitment to inclusion.

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