Pride P.E.I. uses rainbow hockey tape to send a powerful message

Pride P.E.I. is reaching out to Island hockey teams to get involved in a new national campaign to stop homophobia in sports.

Pride Tape is hockey tape in the six rainbow colours of the pride flag, an initiative that was started at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. 

Pride P.E.I. says that when hockey players wrap their sticks in the tape, it sends a powerful message that everyone is welcome on the ice, regardless of sexual orientation.

'Every day we have athletes coming out.- Tyler Murnaghan, Pride P.E.I.

Tyler Murnaghan, the chair of Pride P.E.I., says his group is offering the rainbow tape to minor league teams and the Charlottetown Islanders — for free.  

"It's all about ending homophobia in sports. I mean everyday we have athletes coming out, sharing their stories and they're always saying the same thing, that they were scared, that they were never going to be accepted, that they were never going to be able to go anywhere because of who they were," Murnaghan said.

• Rainbow hockey stick tape supports LGBTQ athletes

Pride Tape organizers in Edmonton have a crowd-funding campaign on the go to raise money for the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services at the University of Alberta and the You Can Play initiative.