NHL drops its Pride tape ban after players protest

The National Hockey League (NHL) has dropped its two-week-old ban on players applying rainbow-colored Pride tape to their sticks in support of the LGBTQ+ community. The NHL had originally issued the ban so that players wouldn’t have to appear next to anyone demonstrating “personal support” for “special initiatives.”

Arizona Coyotes defenseman Travis Dermott defied the NHL’s ban by using the tape during his team’s October 21 match against the Anaheim Ducks. Philadelphia Flyers forward Scott Laughton had also said that he intended to defy the ban in upcoming matches as well.

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On Tuesday, the NHL, in conjunction with the NHL Players Association and the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition, said that players will be allowed to represent and advocate for social causes through stick tape, Yahoo News reported. It’s unclear whether players use stick tape to advocate for any other social causes. The NHL had never offered specifics on how it planned to enforce its tape ban in the first place.

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After displaying his tape in last Saturday’s game, Dermott said he wanted to see greater LGBTQ+ support in ice hockey. He said he felt strongly about it and shed tears over it since he has queer family members and knows queer people who have pretended to be okay, despite struggling with stigma.

“I won’t lie,” Dermot told gophnx.com, “from the outside, it’s easy to see that I’m putting my career on the line for something. I definitely went through some emotional ups and downs that night … I don’t want to put my teammates or my coaches or my [general managers] or the equipment managers in any kind of bad light when it’s their job to kind of look out for something like [me using the tape] happening. It was definitely something that I did just by myself and was prepared to kind of deal with whatever repercussions.”

“With how many eyes are on us, especially with the young kids coming up in the new generation, you want to put as much positive love into their brain as you can. You want them to see that it’s not just being taught or coming from maybe their parents at home. They need to see it in the public eye for it to really make an effect,” he added.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly had originally said that Dermott’s use of the tape would be “handled in due course,” but the optics of punishing a pro-LGBTQ+ advocate wouldn’t have looked good on the league, especially as it has recently rolled back its LGBTQ+ support by banning players from wearing rainbow-colored jerseys during Pride Night events.

In a statement issued via Instagram, Pride Tape wrote, “We are so very grateful to everyone who believes hockey should be a safe, inclusive, and welcoming space for all…. We are extremely happy that players will now have the option to voluntarily represent important social causes with their stick tape throughout the NHL season.”

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In June, the NHL banned players from wearing Pride-themed warm-up jerseys during the teams’ LGBTQ+-inclusive Pride nights. The ban also prevents players from wearing jerseys commemorating military veterans, people with cancer, and others.

In an early October memo further explaining the decision, the NHL said, in part, “Players shall not be put in the position of having to demonstrate (or where they may be appearing to demonstrate) personal support for any Special Initiatives. A factor that may be considered in this regard includes, for example, whether a Player (or Players) is required to be in close proximity to any groups or individuals visibly or otherwise clearly associated with such Special Initiative(s).”

The broadly written “clarification” could technically mean that players could refuse to be on the ice if there is a drag queen, a gay men’s chorus singing the National Anthem, or even out gay players present, the LGBTQ+ sports website Outsports noted.