To Hockey, With Love and the Mysterious Disappearance of the HIFE Ambassador Program
Where are the gay people, Gary?
Writers’ note: We’re both In It with school right now, so we’ll be taking a break next week. You’ll also be seeing more joint issues for the next month or so! These are always so much fun to write, so we hope you enjoy them! We will be back, but until then, take care. Perrye & Gaby
For something that genuinely doesn’t affect my life in the grand scheme of things, the NHL really does give me secondhand mortification way too often.
A couple of days ago, Sara Civian made a joke about how Max Domi - just traded from Columbus to Carolina - could step in as the Hockey Is For Everyone (HIFE) ambassador for their upcoming Pride Night. I remembered that a couple of folks had mentioned that the NHL’s page listing the HIFE ambassadors hadn’t been updated in a while, so I went to check, and sure enough, Max Domi was still listed as the Canadiens’ ambassador. I tweeted a couple of screenshots, and because I can’t leave things alone, went back to check the following day and noticed they had completely removed the page.
It was mildly amusing and embarrassing for them, given the sheer amount of impressions those tweets got, but I thought that was the end. Then, Sara tweeted that the NHL had informed her that they had gotten rid of the ambassador program since they were focusing on expanding other projects. When asked about what other sort of programs they were investing in, she gave a few examples, including the expansion of Black History Month and Going Green. Apparently, not everyone had gotten the memo as Max Domi had been interviewed as the HIFE ambassador for the Columbus Blue Jackets in February. It was such a weird, unnecessary lie to get caught up in, but not unusual for a league that seems to drop the ball on, well, everything.
Truthfully, I find most of these efforts performative. Superficial endeavors like this don’t do much to change the culture - and it’s hard to take them seriously when they’ve taken money from a historically bigoted business like Chick-fil-a. However, as useless as I find a lot of these programs to be, I’m aware that’s not the truth for many people, so their inability to do anything thoughtfully or without being reactionary irked me.
Over the years, I’ve seen and understood how important it is to see a player come out and support a Pride initiative. So many of us turn to the sport for the community and for the sense of belonging to something greater than us. Despite the enormous growth we’ve seen in the acceptance of different gender and sexual identities, it is still a very marginalized existence and often filled with worry - even for people like myself who never had an issue coming out. When you’ve invested so much time and energy into something like hockey, It’s nice to see someone you respect on a team that you like to affirm that you belong here, despite these “differences.” I get it, and so does the NHL, which is why they have no problem sharing even the most mundane things players do when it comes to supporting these pride events.
The NHL’s inability to do anything right is even more annoying when you consider the history of the ambassador program. Hockey Is For Everyone has been around since the 90s and Mr. Willie O’ree was the original ambassador. He sat on the NHL’s diversity task force and was the Director of Youth Development. It was initially aimed at making hockey accessible in low-income and marginalized communities. In 2011, The Bruins website captured the tremendous amount of work he had put in over the years:
“O'Ree is currently the National Hockey League's Director of Youth Development and ambassador for NHL Diversity, a post he has held since January 1998. As Director of Youth Development, O’Ree has helped the NHL Diversity program expose more than 40,000 boys and girls of diverse backgrounds to unique hockey experiences. Over the past decade, O'Ree has traveled thousands of miles across North America helping to establish 39 local grassroots hockey programs, all geared towards serving economically disadvantaged youth. While advocating strongly that "Hockey is for Everyone," O'Ree stresses the importance of essential life skills, education, and the core values of hockey, which are: commitment, perseverance, and teamwork.”
However, in 2017, the league decided to revamp this program as part of their February “Hockey Is For Everyone Month” by shoving all marginalized communities they wanted to “represent” into one month while only mildly alluding to Black History Month. With the introduction of the ambassador program and their collaboration with You Can Play, HIFE quickly came to represent the league’s Pride efforts effectively ignoring the history and the legacy of Mr. O’Ree’s work.
From the very start of its existence, the program was shrouded in questionable decisions. In its first year, they decided to make Andrew Shaw - a Grown Ass Man using the homophobic F-slur in the Year Of Our Lord 2016 - the representative for the Habs. A mere three months after the launch of the program, in May 2017, Ryan Getzlaf would get a paltry fine of $10,000 for repeatedly calling a referee a “cocksucker.” Very inclusive.
So, not only was this program co-opted, there was not much thought put behind it, and they couldn’t make it sustainable considering the page had not been updated since the 2019-20 season. The program was abandoned as quickly as it was put together, without taking the time to inform anyone.
Since the social uprisings in 2020 that put a spotlight on the sport’s many issues, the league has changed their approach to diversity and inclusion programming under the guidance of Kim Davis. However, it’s important to note that those efforts have happened thanks to the work of fans and organizations like the Black Girl Hockey Club, who’ve given a voice to a lot of previously ignored people. Even as Mr. O’ree gets the recognition he deserves, his induction to the HHOF cannot be entirely attributed to the league. That was also an effort spearheaded by fans and his family friends.
The NHL being a disorganized mess is nothing new, but it is insulting to treat fans like we’re not going to notice something is amiss. The league has enough resources to do programs for each community with care and the thoughtfulness it deserves. Acting as they can also only prioritize one community at the time, also completely ignores those who encompass more than one identity.
Now we’re in 2022, hurtling towards the end of another season and I’ve yet to see any comprehensive plan or how effective their new initiatives have been. NHL Pride Nights are now in March, but they haven’t bothered updating the majority of the content of their Pride page since the summer of 2021. Even their “Top Stories” section on their HIFE page features only four stories relating to Pride Nights. And now, their most visible program supporting Pride has mysteriously disappeared. I guess we’re supposed to wait until the season is over and they remember June is Pride Month to get some updates?
I truly don’t expect much from this league, but constantly invalidating and insulting the communities of fans is just… so annoying. There was no need for the league to come out and say any of these things. For once it would be nice to see them take a measure of caution when they have to address these topics instead of their usual fumbling “how did we fix this quickly” approach that leaves everyone baffled. For a league that stresses “professionalism” all the time, they sure seem to lack it quite often. This is annoying, I am annoyed.
This Very Special Section Where Everyone Witnesses Perrye and Gaby Actively Becoming Red Wings Fans:
We cannot remember the last time we’ve been so enthusiastic over a team, but damn that Red Wings propaganda has been working on us. Gaby even considered skipping an evening class to watch the game, smh. There’s something so great about a charismatic rookie duo! The MoJoe Show did a Part 2 featuring Lucas Raymond and we’re demanding y’all watch expeditiously:
@ the Red Wings: If y’all are looking to give away tickets next season, we’ll happily take them.
Other (Trade Deadline) Thoughts by Perrye & Gaby:
The 2022 Trade Deadline has come and gone and everyone cried a little bit about seeing Claude Giroux in a Panther’s jersey. We’re sad that Giroux could not win a cup in the town he clearly loved, and we think that the Flyers front office isn’t getting enough flack for their decade of pure incompetence. We know you Philly folks like to tussle, so get to it.
Columbus engaged in a trade so complicated we’re not gonna try to explain it, but it ended up with Max Domi in Carolina. The Canes have really been on a mission to kill the fun, positive fandom they’d built over the last couple of years, huh?
Mathieu Joseph got traded to the Senators. We’re just hoping that they treat him better than they treated Duclair.
Canucks (FINALLY) traded Travis Hamonic to the Senators for a third-round pick but then claimed Brad Richardson the next day, which annulled everything in Perrye’s book. It’s always one step forward, three steps back with that team.
Seravelli also spilled a little tea. Do what you want with this information *angel emoji*.
Vegas is on the struggle bus. They tried to do an inspired “Tampa Bay Lightning” maneuver salary-cap move, which backfired *BIG TIME*. They got screwed over by the Sens incompetency, which makes it even funnier. Finding out there isn’t a central record-keeping system in place for NTCs this late in the game is wild.
Shit I’m Obsessed With by Gaby:
Merge Dragons!: This is not actually a recommendation? I accidentally hyper-fixated on this for like three hours one night and messed up my entire sleep schedule. I cannot explain what the urge to download this game was, but here I am, trying to collect enough coins to buy more dragon eggs like a clown.
StoryGraph: This alternative to GoodReads is fantastic and happens to be Black-owned! It’s still in Beta mode, but the clean design and the cool graphs breaking down your reading style are already worth it. They have tons of other cool features highlighted in this article. If you’re interested in checking it out, my username is gabyu. Y’all aren’t allowed to make fun of what I read, though.
Iced Dirty Chais as my Spring Drink: To make myself the most stereotypical millennial bisexual on earth, I order them with Oat Milk. I also don’t have my license for those wondering.
Murdoch Mysteries: I caught up on all of the seasons in 2021, so I have a lot of Thoughts™. The new season is now available in the USA, so I caught up. I think it’s funny that Murdoch can come up with the most fantastic gadgets and meet all these people, but the show cannot fathom coming up with a way to include more Black and Indigenous characters. It’s getting on my nerves, so I’ll let y’all know if I keep on watching.
Happy Aries season, and we’ll see y’all in two weeks!
With Love,
Gaby