Originally posted at SaskyStewart.com

Recently, I reread the great articles by both Bruce Arthur at National Post and Andrew at PuckBuddy’s regarding Patrick Burke’s recent speech at the OutSport Toronto Forum.

Patrick Burke, just like his brother and his father, is a remarkable man but like his brother and father probably doesn’t see it that way. He sees what he does instead as a necessary, as something that has to be done because this is what you do. When you are a Burke, you do things the right way, try to set things the right way and this fight against homophobia is another thing on a list of things they must do the right way.

In many ways, it reflects how I feel about homophobia and its continued prevalence in our sporting community.

I am not gay, nor do I strictly define myself as straight either. Instead, I view sexuality as a spectrum which I sit somewhere on but don’t tie myself down to. I grew up the daughter of a sports mad hairdresser and culture loving pool installer who once drove a tour bus for a drag show in what is Australia’s most homophobic electorate (44% of Capricornia believe homosexuality to be inherently wrong). In high school I was the righteous indignation student for gay rights and I’m sure I made an English teacher or two in my conservative, country-like town uncomfortable with my homosexuality-centric feature articles (gay literature, LGBT youth programs so forth). I played on girls inline and ice hockey teams and had gay teammates. I did school musicals and theatre productions and had gay cast mates. It was simply a normal part of life for me.

Sometimes I think, because I’m not “gay”, because I don’t strictly identify myself under the LGBT scope, that my aims and goals somehow seem less honest and real and that maybe I have less of a reason to be so passionate about this cause, to fight so hard.

However, I think maybe this difference is the key. For the attitude towards homosexuality in sport to change, indeed for the attitude to homosexuality anywhere to change it can’t be the just the gays to stand up and promote it. There isn’t enough of them. Instead, it is up to so many of us. The straights, the not quite there’s, the no need for a definitions who need to stand up for our teammates, our class mates, our friends and family and say we need to change this. We must be the allies that will stand beside them and in the grand tradition of Hernan Cortes (a story so perfectly used by Patrick in this context) burn the boats. We must refuse to go back. We must make it work.

That’s what the Burke family are doing. They are burning the boats and refusing to accept things, to let it go back to how it had always been. They refuse to relock the closets. They’re putting themselves out there, for the very reason that this is what they do. They will fight this fight as it is the right thing to do, for Brendan and for the world, both in and out of hockey.

I hope, that via Hockey Against Hate, I can too continue to play a part in kindling the flames to burn.

With the hockey season winding down around North America and the only ones left on the ice being Boston and Vancouver, we turn our eyes to the rest of the sporting world.

In Australia over the weekend, the issue of racism came glaring back in to the sporting headlines with two incidence of racial vilification making waves.

Check out this report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation..

Society blamed for racism in sport

Michael Edwards

[..]

A big hello to all our supporters so far in this exciting project. We’re thankful to each and every one of you who are putting your support behind the cause and helping us change hockey for the better.

So what have we been up to and where’s the project going next?

We’ve received a lot of great cover in the “blogsphere” in the past two weeks so if you haven’t read the articles yet, take a moment and stop by the blogs below.

• H8 is a Four Letter Word via PuckBuddys
• Hockey Against H8 via Ted’s Take
• Hockey Against Hate via The Hockey Wife

So what’s in the pipeline here at Hockey Against Hate?

• More Shirts  - The response to Alexa’s designs have been overwhelming and we’re loving seeing the photos of people rocking their shirts with pride. Hopefully in the short-term future we’ll have more amazing work to share with you and to help you spread the message.
• Poster Series – One of our next steps includes a poster series that fits with our Hockey Against Hate ideals and purposes that is suitable for distribution through rinks across North America.
• Fact Sheets - We’re also piecing together fact sheets at the moment that outline the impact of homophobia, racism and sexism in sport and hockey and what we can do to change that.
• Resources Packs – The biggest project on the table at Hockey Against Hate is the “Resource Pack”. Aimed at Coaches and Administrators – the pack will serve as an information resource and discuss not only the appearance and impact of homophobia, racism and sexism in hockey but strategies for creating and instituting more inclusive and accepting behaviours within teams and organisations.
• Partnerships – At this point we’re still putting together strategy and resources but in the near future we’re hoping to start developing partnerships with both hockey teams, but leagues and players to promote the Hockey Against Hate cause and the ideas behind this. We’re hoping to use these partnerships to translate it greater awareness and a change of attitude amongst both players but fans in the hockey community.

Once again, thank you for all your support!