Canucks goalie Anders Nilsson rips homophobic culture of hockey

[doniceage]

Vancouver Canucks goalie Anders Nilsson says that if he had been gay growing up in Sweden, the homophobia in hockey would have caused him to quit.

“What I now can feel myself, is that if I was gay, I would have quit playing hockey in my teens,” Nillson said in a wide-ranging interview with the Swedish website Aftonbladet. His remarks were translated on Reddit.

“That’s why I think when people say there are three to four gay players on each [NHL] team, I say no, absolutely not. They quit when they were younger. There’s no one who would dare to or want to keep playing. Team sports are about the feeling of togetherness, it’s just as fun to go there to hang out and have someone to talk to as the actual sports, but if you have a hard time in the dressing room when you’re a teen it’s not as fun to play hockey on the field either.”

https://www.outsports.com/2018/8/14/...cks-gay-player

[pwaldo]

Because when I think of macho culture I think of Sweden

[creasecollector]

Good on Nilsson. I think he's 100% right on this.

I've played hockey all my life, and for anyone who's also played, or hung out "with the boys" chatting about whatever (especially the younger we are) can agree that some of the language and terms used isn't the politest use of words you'll ever hear/speak. I can only imagine what some people go through in locker rooms and the fear of backlash they might receive if they come out to their teammates would be incredibly overwhelming, and I could definitely see kids quitting the sport they love because the culture surrounding their youth teams were not healthy atmospheres to be in.

This reminds me of listening to an interview from the CWHL's Jessica Platt (a Transgender athlete), and they spoke about exactly this issue and how she felt like she didn't "fit in" in the locker room culture growing up.