Luke Prokop came out as gay to his mother, and while Nicole Prokop embraced her son\u2019s decision she had a\u2026<\/p>\n
Luke Prokop came out as gay to his mother, and while Nicole Prokop embraced her son\u2019s decision she had a very specific concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was worried about my hockey career and how it might impact it,\u201d Prokop recalled. <\/p>\n
Pioneers such as Jason Collins (NBA)<\/a> and Carl Nassib (NFL)<\/a> came out as gay while they were playing. The 23-year-old Prokop in 2021 became<\/a> the first player drafted and signed by an NHL team to come out, though he has yet to play in the sport\u2019s top league. Like the NHL, no active Major League Baseball player<\/a> has come out while playing.<\/p>\n With the popularity of the show \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d<\/a> featuring two gay players putting a spotlight on the sport, it raised the question of how an openly gay player would be accepted in the NHL. Key stakeholders point out there are challenges but say hockey is primed for the emergence of another pioneer.<\/p>\n \u201cI think people are ready for this,\u201d said longtime league and team executive Brian Burke, whose late son Brendan came out in 2009 and made his father one of the leading advocates for LGBTQ+ access. \u201cA player like that would be welcomed. Now, he\u2019d face some hard right-wing criticism and social media abuse, but I think we\u2019re ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Why hasn\u2019t an NHL player come out?<\/p>\n Collins in 2013<\/a> became the first active player in one of the four North American major professional men\u2019s sports leagues to come out. Nassib in 2021 \u2014 a month before Prokop \u2014 became the first in the NFL<\/a>. There are a number of openly gay players in top women\u2019s leagues, including the WNBA and PWHL.<\/p>\n Burke, who was executive director of the PWHL Players\u2019 Association from 2023-25, said he is surprised a player in the best men\u2019s hockey league in the world has not yet come out.<\/p>\n There are myriad reasons it hasn\u2019t happened yet, from concerns over the feelings of family members and teammates to the team-centric culture of hockey that discourages standing out for any reason.<\/p>\n \u201cHockey players don\u2019t want attention and they\u2019re going to deem it as there\u2019s a concern that a team would see it as a distraction because of all the attention it would get,\u201d said retired goaltender Brock McGillis, who came out after his career ended. \u201cIf you\u2019re not a star and you\u2019re a bubble (player), are you really going to risk that to potentially change the trajectory of your career? Maybe you get cut. Maybe you get sent down. Are you going to take that chance?\u201d<\/p>\n McGillis considers men\u2019s hockey one of, if not the most difficult, sports to come out in \u201cbecause of the language, behaviors and attitudes that are pervasive in the culture.\u201d Homophobic language is part of it.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I played, homophobic language was acceptable,\u201d said Burke, whose on-ice career in college and the minors came in the \u201970s. \u201cIt was encouraged. There\u2019s only a handful of words you could use to say something hateful, and those were it. Referring to homosexual acts, it was commonplace, and I\u2019m ashamed to say I was one of those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n What makes the climate ready for this?<\/p>\n Kurt Weaver, executive director of the You Can Play nonprofit that advocates for LGBQT+ inclusion in sports, said that while homophobic language still persists in local rinks and games at many age levels, the NHL has worked with the organization and others to significantly reduce the presence of anti-gay slurs.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a massive reduction of homophobic language at the NHL level \u2014 in those locker rooms, in those organizations, in the front offices, coaches to players, players to coaches \u2014 in that environment,\u201d Weaver said. \u201cIf you would be sitting in a locker room in 2011 when we got started and then today, it is a vastly different environment as it goes toward homophobic, racist and other hateful language.\u201d<\/p>\n A strong supporter of Pride and other inclusionary efforts, Scott Laughton has seen it playing more than a decade in the NHL with Philadelphia, Toronto and now Los Angeles. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s changed a lot,\u201d Laughton said. \u201cA lot of it is language, the way you speak, and I think those (things) affect people a lot. I think it\u2019s going in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Prokop\u2019s experience is an example of progress. When he came out at age 19, the Canadian said the response was \u201cnothing but positive,\u201d at the time with Calgary of the Western Hockey League and then on six subsequent teams.<\/p>\n \u201cEverywhere I\u2019ve gone, everyone\u2019s been open, honest, really positive,\u201d said Prokop, who plays in the American Hockey League for the team Bakersfield, California. \u201cEvery team I\u2019ve gone to, all the guys have been fantastic about it, and I have no reason to think that it would be any different if a player would come out in the NHL, say, tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n Prokop was worried about how he would be perceived, and McGillis said the two spoke almost every day for months before the 6-foot-5, 220-pound defenseman decided to come out. Drafted by Nashville in the third round in 2020, the Predators\u2019 front office and coaching staff were among the people who needed to be informed. A call with them assuaged a lot of Prokop\u2019s fears.<\/p>\n \u201cThey said it was the right thing to do, that they wanted to help in any way they could,\u201d Prokop said. \u201cThey thought I was really brave for doing this, and they had my back every step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n What will happen when an NHL player comes out?<\/p>\n Burke, 70, expects a negative outcry from people of his age range and on social media, something he said Brendan dealt with until his death in a car crash in early 2010. Then he expects an outpouring of support. He said he wished it had happened when he was general manager of an NHL team.<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t happen,\u201d Burke said. \u201cBut I think we are closer and closer to it.\u201d<\/p>\n The NHL is more than a century old and change often comes slowly. There was controversy over Pride nights<\/a> and even rainbow-colored tape during warmups<\/a> as recently as 2023.<\/p>\n Commissioner Gary Bettman pointed to the league\u2019s longstanding relationship with You Can Play and teams\u2019 involvement in Pride tournaments all over North America as evidence that an openly gay player would be received positively.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve always said, and I believe it would be the case, that if a player comes out, he would be welcomed,\u201d Bettman said. \u201cWe have fully embraced being a welcoming sport on and off the ice, no matter who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n Prokop said \u201chockey gets a bad rap\u201d \u2014 some of it deserved \u2014 but going on his journey led him to see the best in people in the sport. McGillis believes the fan base would be welcoming and that players by and large are tolerant, based on going around talking about his experiences.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re engaging with me \u2026 and it would be easy for them not to,\u201d McGillis said. \u201cI\u2019m the gay hockey dude, you know what I mean? But they are. I go into youth locker rooms across North America and in some of the most red areas of America, and it\u2019s very progressive in terms of the way they engage with me.\u201d<\/p>\n McGillis, who regrets not coming out sooner to people in his life, sees a silver lining in hockey\u2019s do-anything-for-my-teammates mentality that could eventually clear the way for a player being comfortable enough to come out. <\/p>\n \u201cIt might end up being one of the more supportive environments if a player did come out of any of the major team professional sports,\u201d McGillis said. \u201cI don\u2019t think \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 is the reason for that. I think that\u2019s always been the case.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n