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Anaheim Outlaws Celebrate Pride Night
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Anaheim Outlaws Pride Night Review
by Outsports


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With the SMJHL's S48 season well underway, many teams have begun hosting their various special event nights. We've already seen many typical event nights; Military Appreciation Nights, Bobblehead Giveaway Nights, Hockey Fights Cancer Nights, Legends Nights, Minor Hockey Nights, etc but in last night's game #35, the Anaheim Outlaws had an event night that hasn't been seen in the SHL since the Halifax Raiders hosted their own in Season 46, LGBT+ Pride Night. The Outlaws teamed up with us here at Outsports and with the team at You Can Play to host the franchise's first ever Pride Night to promote inclusiveness in the sport. We asked the team's co-GM, retired SHL player Brandon Donini, about why he felt it was important for the Outlaws to have a Pride Night of their own. Here's what he had to say:

"We felt that the world of sports is often a world in which LGBT+ youth feel unwelcomed. We wanted to do something to promote inclusivity and to show these kids who often feel like they don't belong in the world of sports that sports are for them too and that they could be free to play sports and be themselves without judgement. We approached you can play to see how we could go about creating a night that celebrated inclusivity and diversity in hockey but we wanted the night to be meaningful, for us this had to be more than just a marketing ploy, we wanted to make sure we got it right and that we made a difference for LGBT+ youth."

The Outlaws managed to do exactly what they said they would as the event was very well thought out and executed. The team invited the LGBT Centre of Orange County to the game, offering tickets to 5 centre volunteers and 30 local LGBT youth. The kids were shown around the arena and given the opportunity to talk with some of their favourite Outlaws. After that they were brought to a conference room where they were spoken to by Outlaws co-GM Brandon Donini about how the world of sports is much more accepting than they think and they were given motivation to sign up for youth hockey by the Outlaws who offered to pay for the equipment and registration of any of them who wanted to play hockey. The kids were also all given an Outlaws "LOVE" hoodie before being escorted to their seats behind the Outlaws bench.

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The team came out onto the ice for warmups pre game with pride tape sticks and jerseys with the Outlaws pride logo which are all expected to be auctioned off on the team's official site in the coming days with 100% of the proceeds being donated to the LGBT Centre of Orange County so that they could keep on continuing to provide the services that they do for the area's LGBT+ youth. In addition, everyone in attendance at last night's game got a free Outlaws pride cap at their seats. We were given a chance to speak to team veteran Lallo Selman pre match, Lallo was chosen as the team's ambassador for the night, he's also the only LGBT+ player in franchise history, having come out as gay shortly after making his SMJHL debut in S46. Here's what Lallo had to say about the night:

"I think it's great that the team has decided to do something like this, it's an amazing way to show visibility and to make everyone feel accepted. Growing up, I loved playing hockey but it was difficult to feel like I belonged sometimes. There was barely any representation at the pro level and at the minor level there was a lot of homophobia. Whether it was intentional or not, the word ***** got thrown around the locker room often when I was growing up, it made me question how much I wanted to go to the rink some days. For other young kids in my position to see SMJHL teams doing something like this, it could give them that spark to keep going to the arena and keep chasing their dreams. It's also important for other young kids to see nights like this, to understand that harmless locker room talk might be harmless to them but could actually end up being really harmful to some of their peers. As a gay pro hockey player, I promised myself that I'd become a role model for LGBT+ youth and be someone that LGBT+ kids in sports could point to and tell themselves that that could be them and that they do belong in sports so I'm really glad that the Outlaws gave me an opportunity to do that tonight as their pride night ambassador."

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The game itself didn't really start off according to plan for the Outlaws with Josef Kubinec opening the scoring for Halifax just 18 seconds into the first period. It took Anaheim five minutes to find an answer when Gunnar Petrov slotted home with assists from Jukka Jokinen and star defensemen Noah Tedla. The remainder of the first and all of the second were rather uneventful with either side able to beat the opposing goalie to break the deadlock. It wasn't until 5 minutes into the 3rd when veteran send down Oliver Klozoff took a hooking penalty that things got more interesting. With 7 seconds left on the power play, Jerry Mander left the puck for Ivan Maximus at the top of the face-off circle who sent it across the zone to Lallo Selman who was all alone to slot in the one timer giving the Outlaws the go ahead goal early in the third period. The Outlaws would go on to hold on to the lead, winning the game 2-1 off a Lallo Selman game winner. Could anyone have written a better story for tonight's event? The night got even more interesting shortly after the game when Lallo Selman made an Instagram post that wasn't about the game but which was actually about his personal life. The Outlaws star - who aside from revealing his sexuality has been very quiet about his personal life - posted a picture revealing to his fans that he is actually in a relationship with singer Troye Sivan. It seems the nights events inspired him to be even more open about his life.

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We also got the chance to speak to some other Outlaws post game, here's what rookie centreman Kevin Robinson had to say about the night. 

“I think it’s a great thing. It’s an important thing to use a platform such as pro sports for good reasons such as inclusivity. You just want people to feel comfortable and as welcome as possible, whether they’re a fan or even a player. There’s been a lot history of animosity towards the LGBTQ community in sports and this is another step in the right direction regarding that, and I’m glad to be a part of it”

It's clear that tonight's event had the meaningful impact on the hockey community and on the LGBT+ community that the Outlaws would have hoped that it had. The Outlaws got everything right in being sure that they actually had an impactful night rather than looking to create a PR stunt and we hope that this is a step in the right direction for the LGBT+ community in sports and that other SMJHL and SHL teams begin to follow suit.

Thanks @bilbo for the idea for this article.

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#2

When I made jerseys for Anaheim, I kinda wanted to do a LGBT one as well, dunno why I didn't go through with it.

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Former Players: Yoshimitsu McCloud (LW, #64) - Outlaws pride Platoon Jets Aurora Ireland
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#3

That insta post is missing a quotation mark

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UsaScarecrowsBlizzardSpecters | [Image: specterspp.png][Image: spectersupdate.png] | TimberArmadaSpectersFinland

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#4

Curse you for making me want to root for any other J team besides the Raiders. V nice article and love the graphics. Cheers

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Current: Wolfpack raiders Uk | Alumni: Inferno pride Knights Germany
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#5

Great work!

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#6

yeye get it howard

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