Members of the Leaside Flames Bantam AA team grab their sticks before steppin onto the ice during a GTHL hockey game at St. Michael's arena on Sept. 30, 2011.Della Rollins/The Globe and Mail
The biggest youth hockey league in Canada is launching an initiative to better educate players, coaches and parents on LGBTQ issues and foster a greater sense of inclusion – a move it says is crucial to growing the game.
“For us to really properly serve all families in the GTA, we’re obligated to ensure that we’re creating the safest space possible for all participants,” said Scott Oakman, executive director and chief operating officer of the Greater Toronto Hockey League.
On Wednesday, the league is announcing a three-year partnership with the You Can Play Project, an organization dedicated to eliminating homophobia in sports. It is part of the league’s plan to improve the diversity, inclusion, equity and overall culture of hockey, and will involve staff, coaches, officials and players.
Participation in the league dropped to approximately 27,000 players last year, down from 34,000 prepandemic. Promoting a wider sense of inclusion – the focus of the program – is essential for any league that hopes to have a future in the sport, said Denis Vachon, partnership manager for the You Can Play Project.
“When it comes to inclusion work, you have to find little inclusion champions in order to make it happen. And I think we’re finding that the GTHL as a whole is really striving to be that inclusion champion,” Mr. Vachon said.
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With registration decreasing over the past 10 years, and new Canadians showing little interest in the game, the GTHL hosted a 2019 summit on how to create a positive shift in the culture of minor hockey in the Toronto area. The summit, which involved multiple stakeholders, led to the creation of an independent committee on racism and discrimination, centered around diversity and inclusion, Mr. Oakman said.
The education component of the new partnership will aim to foster a better understanding of the LGBTQ community, Mr. Vachon said, with a particular focus on trans and non-binary individuals.
“I think society is very comfortable with what a gay man is and what a lesbian woman is. But there’s still a lot of confusion, I think, for people when it comes to transgender, non binary.”
You Can Play will create an inclusive coaching guide to help GTHL officials better understand how to create a safe space for players and “how to shift the focus from someone’s sexual identity and gender to what they’re contributing to the team and how it impacts the actual game,” Mr. Vachon said.
Approximately 20 per cent of millennials identify as LGBTQ, and 60 per cent say they are allies, he said.
“We need to really educate the leaders in the GTHL, the coaches and the support staff, because they’re the ones who have grown up with a different kind of learning about the LGBTQ population.”
Misunderstanding and discrimination toward LGBTQ people and issues is hardly isolated to the sport, Mr. Vachon added.
“It’s not hockey, it’s society in general.”
The guide will be one of the key pieces of the partnership, Mr. Oakman said.
“It will allow the coaches to make sure that they’re comfortable talking about and being part of any conversations that might come about in this space, giving them some tools in order to speak to – in an informed way – these types of issues,” he said.
It is commendable that the GTHL is working to make sure that current players feel safe within the sport – and that the next generation of parents feel comfortable putting their child into hockey, Mr. Vachon said.
“They’re guaranteeing that they will have a place in hockey for the next 20 to 30 years, because the next generation isn’t going to stand for an organization that isn’t pro LGBTQ.”
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