{"id":88672,"date":"2023-10-16T15:01:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T19:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=88672"},"modified":"2024-09-01T09:54:28","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T13:54:28","slug":"opinion-kyle-rich-discusses-the-communitys-role-in-equity-in-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2023\/10\/opinion-kyle-rich-discusses-the-communitys-role-in-equity-in-sport\/","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: Kyle Rich discusses the community&#8217;s role in equity in sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Associate Professor of Recreation and Leisure Studies Kyle Rich wrote a piece recently published in the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thespec.com\/opinion\/contributors\/what-banning-pride-tape-tells-us-communities-not-pro-sport-leagues-must-lead-on-equity\/article_4f11a51d-b244-5d68-b60c-3d5d7758490d.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hamilton Spectator<\/a><\/em> about the role communities can play to make sport in Canada more equitable and accessible.<\/p>\n<p>He writes:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cPride nights were never the solution.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>It was recently reported the NHL will ban players from using Pride Tape this season. This comes after the league put an end to\u00a0all themed warmup jerseys\u00a0last June after a small number of players \u2014 including Canadians James Reimer and Eric and Marc Staal \u2014 were vocal about Pride jerseys, stating they go \u201cagainst their beliefs\u201d\u00a0and the league determined the jerseys were a \u201cdistraction.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Reports\u00a0suggest an NHL memo indicated players shall not be put in the position of having or appearing to support, or being close to those demonstrating personal support, for any \u201cspecial initiatives.\u201d Some have likened the recent decision to hockey\u2019s version of a \u201cdon\u2019t say gay\u201d policy and suggested this may quash all teams\u2019 Pride Night activities.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The policy change comes a year after the NHL published a report on \u201caccelerating diversity and inclusion\u201d and amid the ongoing \u201chockey is for everyone\u201d campaign. The irony of these mixed messages is not lost on most followers. But, I think all of the buzz generated through news and social media detracts from the key issue at the centre of these developments: professional sport leagues are not the change-makers who are going to fix the problem.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>While pro teams are, and should be, part of the conversation, Pride nights were never going to be\u00a0<\/em><em>the<\/em><em>\u00a0solution to address homophobia and transphobia in sports.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Continue reading the full article on the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thespec.com\/opinion\/contributors\/what-banning-pride-tape-tells-us-communities-not-pro-sport-leagues-must-lead-on-equity\/article_4f11a51d-b244-5d68-b60c-3d5d7758490d.html\">Hamilton Spectator <\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thespec.com\/opinion\/contributors\/what-banning-pride-tape-tells-us-communities-not-pro-sport-leagues-must-lead-on-equity\/article_4f11a51d-b244-5d68-b60c-3d5d7758490d.html\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Associate Professor of Recreation and Leisure Studies Kyle Rich wrote a piece recently published in the Hamilton Spectator about the role communities can play to make sport in Canada more equitable and accessible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,7,6],"tags":[5207,83],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88672"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88679,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88672\/revisions\/88679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}