Gay Players Welcome

The University of Connecticut men’s hockey team welcomes and accepts all gay and transgender hockey players under one condition: will they, as an athlete, help the team win hockey games. ESPN.com posted an article detailing the team’s campaign to allow gay and transgender athletes the same rights and peace of mind that straight athletes have. The UConn men’s hockey team recently released two videos, for the program You Can Play, showing their support of gay and transgender athletes and announcing to the world that they have no problem playing alongside a gay or transgender teammate.  In the videos the UConn players pledge to support “any teammate, gay or straight, that can help us win games.”  This is a bold move by the team and the players understand that they will be heckled as a result. The players say they already know that they have become known as “the team who made the gay video”. A few misguided remarks however are a small price to pay for getting this important message out to the world and letting young gay athletes know that there are places where they are welcome. One of the messages the team made clear was that “for a young gay hockey player, who is looking for a place to play hockey, he knows that UConn is an option, that he will be safe at UConn, that he will be accepted at UConn.”. Being gay or straight has no effect on physical abilities, athleticism, or the ability to play hockey, so why should it affect an athlete’s opportunity to play the sport they love in college. The UConn men’s hockey team has taken a stand against the inequalities that gay and transgender athletes face and this is a refreshing antithesis to the behaviors of many schools and sports teams such as the Penn State Lady Lions basketball team that used to have training rules that included “no lesbians”. UConn men’s hockey is starting a movement that hopefully many will get behind and in turn start to change the culture in sport and society.

Todd Greenbaum
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