Image courtesy of Ottawa Gay Hockey Association, used without permission (sorry!)

Former minor league hockey player and current hockey columnist Justin Bourne (son of Bob Bourne of Islanders fame) wrote a thought provoking article focused on homophobia among hockey players. It’s an interesting read, in which Bourne tackles not only homophobia, but misogyny and intolerance in general.

“It’s time to acknowledge we’ve been unfair to the gay community, that the culture of our sport can be misogynistic, homophobic and cruel. More important, it’s time to make a stand that we want it to change.”

Bourne offers some solutions, but hockey culture is part of a larger world culture which is just as intolerant. It’s hard to say how effective a gay rights movement in sports can be if it’s still rejected by the rest of society.

But if change is going to start anywhere, why not Hockey, eh?

Check out the article written for USA Today by clicking here.

As I’m sure most of you are aware of, the Puck Daddy blog has a series of weekly posts entitled “5 Reasons I Love Hockey,” which “features puckheads from all walks of life revealing five things that either made them a fan or that keep them watching hockey.” It’s usually a pretty interesting read and I try to keep up with the series (and Puck Daddy in general).

This weekend’s post is relevant to HockeyPunx, as they interviewed Canadian punk band Propagandhi for “Five reasons punk band Propagandhi loves hockey.” Go read it now, it’s the punk thing to do.