03-28-2024, 04:10 PMWally Wrote: Finally catching up on this thread... I've been bi for the majority of my adult life. A total of maybe a handful of people in real life know this.  Not even my gay hockey league, not my family... legit no one. 

In saying that... why can't the league have a general question of supporting any marginalized, LGBTQ+/Black Rights//Border Victims... I can keep going... What I'm not trying to do is dilute the support or safe space by being accepting of all these or even saying this.  Answering a singular question like would you support LGBTQ+ Jersey night I get why it would push people away though even if they do support... Like shit, I searched Google and found sim hockey and the first questions I'm being asked are socio-political.  Like what, I'm 14.  What's going on.

I sure as hell support it, but what is to think someone who joins the site doesn't wonder what happens on the other side of answering the question?  Either way... Couldn't the question be rephrased as all-encompassing, so we don't push away those who may simply be looking to just join our site for a safe place to be a user name?  The same can be said to the homophobes... Like you don't have to dig in too far to see we are a LGBTQ+ Safe place (well most spaces I'd like to think), so they answer "yes" to be accepted, does that mean they truly support or will it be vetted further?

I mean... if you simply want to be able to put a check mark next to a user for answering yes in response to a IP question, well is it really going to determine it being a safe place? 

I think this thread, the question and hateful people are dumb altogether.

The reason why that question is so important for me is that when people shoot down the Pride nights in real life on places like r/hockey, it's never just because they don't like rainbows. It's always paired with other bigoted misconceptions like saying that queer people are the real intolerant ones or that they're the reason why the jerseys are gone because they refused to just sit back and let the homophobic players be homophobic - it's a window to their actual beliefs.

I actually privately reached out to one of the users who posted a negative response on that question a while back and their response in that DM immediately raised red flags. It's a question that has such a low bar to clear and some users still manage to trip over it. I'm sure there are homophobic players in real life, but until 2023 they just didn't put their own feelings above that of the team trying to make a welcoming gesture. Reimer and the Staals weren't clowned just for not wearing the jerseys, they were laughed at because the responses that they chose to put out of their own volition walked right up to the line of calling being queer a choice or lifestyle.