On Sunday, professional hockey player Manny Malhotra will be the first Canuck to walk in the Vancouver Pride Parade.
He will join athletes with Western Canadas only gay mens hockey club, the Cutting Edges, and march under the banner of You Can Play, a prominent anti-homophobia campaign endorsed by hockey players such as Ryan Kesler, Steve Stamkos, Shea Weber and others.
I am excited to be a part of it, the fact that what it stands for: If you can play, you can play, Malhotra said Wednesday afternoon.
I dont feel race, religion, creed, age, sexual orientation should be a deciding factor on how you judge somebody, especially in sports where, personally, sports for me is designed to be all-inclusive to incorporate all people. I dont think that any of those factors should segregate people from being a part of it.
Malhotra will join Patrick Burke, son of Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian, and the brother of Brendan, a promising NHL talent scout who died in a car crash two years ago.
Brendan was gay and as the first man associated with professional hockey to come out publicly was an advocate for tolerance in a macho environment that trades in aggression and trash talk. He quit his university hockey team because he worried his teammates would discover his sexual orientation and use it against him, according to a profile of his father in GQ magazine in 2010. He didnt want to hear another gay slur in his own locker room.
I think a lot of young gay athletes find themselves leaving sports because they have trouble reconciling being an athlete and being gay, said Terry Hutcheson, a Cutting Edges player and spokesman.
Idolized sports stars and fan favourites such as Malhotra -- who received a thunderous cheer when he returned to play for the Canucks during the Stanley Cup Final -- yield incredible influence, said Hutcheson.
Just look at the reaction he got when he came back to play after his horrific eye injury in 2011. The fans of this city were just 100 per cent behind him.
Now those fans can support Malhotra, the Canucks and the You Can Play campaign message.
Before Brendan Burke, who was born in Vancouver while his father was the director of hockey operations with the Canucks, came out to an ESPN reporter in the fall of 2009, the senior Burke warned about the media interest and public curiosity the news would bring.
Nobody affiliated with the NHL -- active, retired, or dead -- was out as gay, because hockey isn't like any other sport, GQ writer Mary Rogan stated matter-of-factly. A hockey arena is a Thunderdome where giant men on steel blades crash around in pinball machines disguised as rinks, spitting out teeth and getting sewn up on the bench. It's a game with a strict code of macho behavior that most players learn before they're old enough to drive a car.
Brian and Patrick leveraged that interest to launch You Can Play and filmed a public service announcement together, urging the elimination of hate speech and homophobia in hockey and all sports. Theyre dedicated to ensuring equality, respect and safety for all athletes regardless of sexuality.
The NHL and many of its fans have taken note, broadcasting the message that gay players and their straight allies can team up to silence prejudice and hate speech.
Malhotra is the latest to show his support. The Canucks franchise nominated him and he accepted. The clubs mascot, Fin, will also march in the Pride Parade.
When I heard about the Burke family initiative, I thought it was an incredible step not only for hockey but sports in general, said Malhotra, who credited his parents and upbringing in multicultural Mississauga, Ont. for his views.
You never judge a person based on their colour. You never judge a person on their religion, on their age and that rolls right into someones sexual orientation, [it] should not be an determining factor as to what you think of them or what they should be able to do in society.
One reporter asked Malhotra if he had an opinion about Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomass declared support of an American businessman who opposes same-sex marriage.
Malhotra didnt take the bait. I really dont. I dont know too much about politics, I dont care to get into them but as far as and he changed the subject back to the You Can Play message.
Homosexuality remains a guarded, even taboo, subject in professional sports, he said, but because of the glossy, wide-reaching campaign of You Can Play, Malhotra believes prejudice is giving way to acceptance. The final stop will bring indifference, he said.
As far as I see it, Malhotra meant indifference not as apathy or a lack of concern or a coldness of spirit and stifling of loyalty in the face of adversity. He may have said hes not political, but by taking a stand for something he believes in, Malhotra is anything but indifferent.
Malhotra is not indifferent to homophobia in the NHL but is indifferent to a players sexuality as a marker of skill.
The indifferent answer to the question Is he gay? is this: Can he put the puck in the net?
It doesnt matter, in other words. If you can play, you can play.
Twitter: @MHStewart
