Avoiding the dissertation...
So with the hockey season in full swing (damn you, Vancouver!) I naturally started thinking about the culture of the NHL; playoff beards are just a part of the culture of masculinity that permeates professional hockey. Being me (and I blame most of this on silver_spotted, actually) I started wondering about gay hockey players and how they would deal with the heteronormative culture of the sport. So I took a look (while trying to avoid work again!), and as far as I know, there are no out hockey players in the NHL, past or present.
Fortunately for my curiosity, Wikipedia had a list of out professional sports people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lesbian,_gay,_bisexual,_and_transgender_sportspeople
(it's been so long that I don't remember how to do link headings, and I'm too lazy to look it up, so deal. ;))
The only out professional hockey player they had listed was Peter Karlsson, who was actually murdered 16 years ago because he was gay. He never played for the NHL - he was Swedish, and it looks like he was sort of a middling player in the Swedish professional league.
Karlsson was unusual, though, because it appears as though male professional athletes in general come out only after retirement (like Esera Tuaolo, who played for the NFL, or John Amaechi from the NBA). There aren't many of them, yet, but still, there are some. But not in the NHL. This can't be because gay men haven't played for the NHL, or aren't playing for them now (sheer numbers would say otherwise, and if gay men survived the NBA and the NFL, I suspect they'll make it into the NHL as well.) So what is it about hockey that it hasn't crossed that milestone yet?
Women's hockey appears to be an entirely different story. Colour me unsurprised.
There are a lot of articles speculating about the situation. One excerpt from a book includes an interview with a closeted NHLer that's rather enlightening - it comes from a book by Eric Anderson called "In the Game: Gay Athletes and the Cult of Masculinity". I've linked both the excerpt with the interview and the author's description of the book below.
http://www.outsports.com/entertainment/20050218gumbybookexcerpt.htm
http://outsports.com/entertainment/20050218sidebargumbybook.htm
Another article talks about an out hockey manager at Miami University, who died in a car crash, and what his coming out might mean to the sport in general.
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/2011/02/03/17146481.html
Did I have a point with all this? Not really. It's just interesting to speculate, and to wonder why hockey, out of all the sports marked by that same type of macho ideal, has not one out player. We'll see if and when it happens - I don't know about you, but I'll be standing by to cheer him on whenever it does!
Googling "gay NHL players" actually brings up a lot of interesting info. Who knew?
Fortunately for my curiosity, Wikipedia had a list of out professional sports people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lesbian,_gay,_bisexual,_and_transgender_sportspeople
(it's been so long that I don't remember how to do link headings, and I'm too lazy to look it up, so deal. ;))
The only out professional hockey player they had listed was Peter Karlsson, who was actually murdered 16 years ago because he was gay. He never played for the NHL - he was Swedish, and it looks like he was sort of a middling player in the Swedish professional league.
Karlsson was unusual, though, because it appears as though male professional athletes in general come out only after retirement (like Esera Tuaolo, who played for the NFL, or John Amaechi from the NBA). There aren't many of them, yet, but still, there are some. But not in the NHL. This can't be because gay men haven't played for the NHL, or aren't playing for them now (sheer numbers would say otherwise, and if gay men survived the NBA and the NFL, I suspect they'll make it into the NHL as well.) So what is it about hockey that it hasn't crossed that milestone yet?
Women's hockey appears to be an entirely different story. Colour me unsurprised.
There are a lot of articles speculating about the situation. One excerpt from a book includes an interview with a closeted NHLer that's rather enlightening - it comes from a book by Eric Anderson called "In the Game: Gay Athletes and the Cult of Masculinity". I've linked both the excerpt with the interview and the author's description of the book below.
http://www.outsports.com/entertainment/20050218gumbybookexcerpt.htm
http://outsports.com/entertainment/20050218sidebargumbybook.htm
Another article talks about an out hockey manager at Miami University, who died in a car crash, and what his coming out might mean to the sport in general.
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/2011/02/03/17146481.html
Did I have a point with all this? Not really. It's just interesting to speculate, and to wonder why hockey, out of all the sports marked by that same type of macho ideal, has not one out player. We'll see if and when it happens - I don't know about you, but I'll be standing by to cheer him on whenever it does!
Googling "gay NHL players" actually brings up a lot of interesting info. Who knew?