#pride game

[sidsrockingchair]

12.09.25 | Penguins Pride Game

[snoopygabe]

Gabe using pride tape #goat I’m actually so happily surprised at how much of the team used it especially as there have been so many teams recently where almost no one had it… it means a lot to see my team showing even just some support…

Photos from X

[wlmck]

Pittsburgh Penguins Pride Night / 12.9.25 / Pens vs Ducks / photos by me on a Nikon D3300 🏳️‍🌈

#pens lb #penguins

[thingsmk1120sayz]

The Flyers are awesome

[nofsky8]

I made signs for this game!!! Then I forgot them in the hotel. This post is so they do not go to waste.

[futuristicmentalitynerd]

Probably just me but that June 25th Pride game would be a damn spectacular - The Queen makes her in-game appearance for the first time since last June - kinda game. Don’t shatter my delusion so quickly, people. Let me feel this dream for a minute, y’all.

[himbeaux-on-ice]

rough thoughts on today’s Pride Game and “empty symbolism”

what really matters most I think about the Pride Game, and the way the teams are openly and aggressively promoting it, posting flags, etc, is twofold:

it is a decisive and visible move to very openly tell every bigoted or uncomfortable fan would would say “just stick to hockey” that no, they are committed to this, without plausible deniability or room to weasel out and call it something else. it is a way of saying that those who will threaten to burn their jerseys or stop watching games because of this can go right ahead, because the teams are fully and openly committed to doing this and allowing bigots to feel alienated by this simple gesture it if necessary. like I said, there’s no plausible deniability here. it is an open, highly visible commitment to say “we’re willing to associate with this without shame” which cannot be selectively hidden today. it goes beyond just Pride tape. they have taken it beyond just pasting out a blanket rainbow flag and calling it a day. that is important. that emphatic emblematic statement amongst the toxic masculinity and macho culture of hockey does mean something.

even more importantly: queer kids are going to see this. kids who play hockey, who want to play hockey, or who just love to watch the game, are going to see this and see the message that their team is not hostile to them. that they don’t have to hide who they are to be here. that the team they love (in that way that kids love stuff, so reverently and with such a pedestal to put it on) doesn’t consider them too dirty or shameful to be visibly associated with. I know that we as more politically educated (jaded) queer adults can look at the issue in greater depth and say “well this is just an optics show” or “we don’t know how the players really feel” if we want to. but the truth is that this kind of simple visible thing means so much to kids and teenagers who are struggling to feel out their place in the world, and I will not discount it as “empty” when it accomplishes that, regardless of the difficult-to-judge sincerity of some people involved (impact, not intent, right?)

is there still a lot of work to do? yes. are there more concrete actions that individual players can take to make constructive progress on changing hockey culture and show that their caring is authentic? yes. is optics-based action always a inarguable sign of a sound personal politic or ethos? not always, no. is there more to be done beyond just visibility stuff? always, ALWAYS

but we can acknowledge that these things are true, while also acknowledging that steps like these DO mean something. those truths don’t have to oppose each other. every action taken doesn’t have to be “changes everything instantly and irreversibly by leaps and bounds” OR otherwise “empty and pointless” with no middle ground.

small steps are important and do have a place in change, and it’s okay to appreciate that value and find it meaningful, while also continuing to ask for more concrete steps forward to follow next 💜