I know many women in soccer and hockey have come out openly as gay. Are men more reluctant or is it possible not as many gay men are actually playing professional sports?
seeing that the latest statistics show that 2oish percent of the population is gay, then the odds of zero hockey players being gay is almost impossible. same in all professional sports.
Look at the Olympics. canada's ice dancing pair won gold. the male dancer was the first openly gay athlete to win a medal at the games. that's statistically impossible.
in sports, you still have a old school locker room mentality. there definitely would be a perceived stigma in being gay and in a locker room. i can see some gay athletes not wanting to come out for fear of negatively affecting team dynamics, fear of not being drafted, etc.
you still have hockey players being fined for using derrogatory and homophobic language. since a good % of hockey players are from smaller towns, you can also apply the stereotype of less liberal mindsets in smaller towns and, therefore, there being more of a chance of homophobia.
hey, i'm still from the generation where we used to bully gay or straight kids with homophobic insults. i feel like my generation turned a new leaf in the mid to late 1990s, and my friends and I are quite liberal. it will take 1-2 more generations for homophobia to really drop off. having Right to Play is so incredibly important and I'm proud that the NHL's taken the lead of all pro-sports and embraced it. I hate Bryan Burke but this is his and his children's greatest contribution to hockey. Very proud of Mr Burke for what he's done and doing. if only football, basketball and baseball, which arguably has the highest amount of homophobia, would step up.
also really proud to read the responses by most people on here. there's 1 poster's posts which really upset (read: disgusted) me and there were a lot of mature and eloquent responses countering what he said. you guys did a hell of a lot better than i could have.