NHL Pride Tape ban sends message that hockey isn't for everyone, says queer hockey player
Carson Gates says seeing NHL players he admired supporting the LGBTQ community meant a lot
NCAA hockey player Carson Gates came out last spring to his team after several NHL players refused to wear Pride jerseys.
Now, with the NHL banning Pride-coloured stick tape this week, Gates say he feels the push toward inclusivity in the sport is in question.
"Hockey slowly, slowly, slowly was moving forward, but I think we're taking some steps back with the Pride Tape and the jerseys," Gates, who is a goalie at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, told Day 6 host Brent Bambury.
In June, the NHL told players they would not be allowed to wear themed jerseys during warm-ups. With several players refusing to wear Pride jerseys, league officials said they believed the controversy distracted from the inclusivity work teams did in their communities.
NHL's deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed reporting by ESPN this week that the league circulated a memo before the start of the 2023-2024 season with updated guidance that on-ice uniforms and gear could not be altered for theme nights. This includes the rainbow-coloured stick tape featured previously on Pride nights.
Current NHL players and others involved in the sport — including Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid, former NHL executive and LGBTQ-inclusion advocate Brian Burke and players with the new Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) — expressed their disappointment with the move.
Gates spoke with Bambury about growing up around hockey culture and whether he thinks a generational shift will one day normalize LGBTQ inclusion in the game.
What do you think the NHL finds so scary about rainbow stick tape?
I've been asking myself that same question ever since they, seemingly out of the blue ... decided to get rid of it.
Honestly, it just seems the really loud voices online that are against it — which in my experience have been the minority of hockey fans — have really kind of pushed the NHL into, first off, getting rid of specialty jerseys ... and now going from there on to rainbow tape on sticks.
Getting rid of the jerseys really struck a chord with you because you've been playing hockey most of your life. What was it about the players who refused to wear the Pride jerseys that made you not only want to speak out, but come out as gay?
This is a 15-minute warm-up one game during the year that means so much to LGBTQ+ members of the hockey community — just to see players that they love, they support wearing jerseys supporting them.
And hockey's a game. I mean, I think a lot of people, especially Canadians, know that homophobia runs really deep in the game. Like from my experiences, I've had players [and] coaches from mites up to midgets using the F-slur.
That's just a part of the game growing up, unfortunately, and seeing these top players supporting you and you're not the outcast, at least for one night, means so much.
When you decided to come out, how did the other players react?
My teammates were incredible. The biggest reason why I was able to come out was support from them, my family and friends.
But, you know, a lot of stuff has stemmed off of that initial coming out story … [bringing] more attention to, you know, who I am and myself. But they've been the ones pushing me ... and I didn't have to question a single thing along the way because they have been like my biggest supporters through all of this.
Ten years ago … the NHL partnered with You Can Play, which is an organization that is designed to welcome LGBTQ players to hockey, especially younger players that might have heard the things that you heard when you were coming up. What happened to the NHL in the intervening years?
I wish I could tell you this because I feel like in the past five or so years, the NHL made great steps into making hockey more inclusive, more accessible for people.
Hockey is such a hard game to get into just because, one, it's so expensive and the time required to get into it is absurd.
And the fact that the NHL is really making that harder for people by excluding a lot of people is – I don't know their reasoning behind that. It doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever.
Well, is that the message that you think banning Pride Tape is sending? Is it a message of exclusion?
I would say so.
It's hard to find people involved in the game who are part of the LGBTQ community and so, seeing that you're loved and supported, even with just tape on the stick — like a lot of people think, it's silly. It doesn't make a ton of sense from the outside. But seeing that support in the game where you [were] never supported really up until, literally, they start putting tape on their stick, it literally means the world.
And until this becomes more normalized, we need stuff like this so members of the LGBTQ community ... feel welcomed in the game.
Do you think it's going to be normalized? Do you think that there's a generational shift there that will bring normalization, whether some people want it or not?
One hundred per cent. Especially like my teammates at Chatham right now, they've been incredible and everyone else in my hockey journey since like coming out, they've been awesome.
The biggest hate I've gotten from is from older generations or people who really aren't involved in hockey that much. From my experiences, this current generation coming up, it's more normalized both on and off the ice.
Radio segment produced by Laurie Allan. Q&A edited for length and clarity