The Minnesota Wild admitted on Wednesday that it decided as a team not to wear their gay pride jerseys for its warmup period during Tuesday’s gay pride night game.
Advanced publicity for the game noted that the team would be wearing gay pride-themed uniforms.
Ready to rock the house Ἶ#mnwild pic.twitter.com/l8xOvMKkBS
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 8, 2023
The #mnwild is proud to host its second annual Pride Night presented by @_HealthPartners tonight. The LGBTQIA+ community will be highlighted throughout the evening and many in-game elements will incorporate the Pride theme. https://t.co/30uumi13zt
— Minnesota Wild PR (@mnwildPR) March 7, 2023
“The Minnesota Wild organization is proud to continue our support for the LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual) community by hosting our second annual pride night tonight which we are celebrating in many ways. It is important to host nights like this to show all players, fans, and the LGBTQIA+ community that hockey is for everyone,” the Wild said in a statement ahead of the game.
But many noticed that when game day came, the team was not wearing the jerseys, Fox News reported.
The team later said it was an “organizational decision” not to wear the jerseys.
#mnwild players, who were supposed to wear Pride jerseys tonight and did so last season, are not wearing them in warmups.
Told it was an organizational decision
The Wild have several other Pride initiatives they are doing>>>https://t.co/h45Wr5do5b
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) March 8, 2023
It also appears that the auction to benefit the LGBTQIA+ community was deleted from the team’s website.
The team has worn pride-themed jerseys in the past. However, the last time was in March of last year, Fox added.
This instance of refusing to wear a gay pride jersey is only the latest in a mounting number of teams worldwide that are turning away from wearing gay pride-themed paraphernalia.
In Jan., Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov skipped warmups because he refused to wear the gay pride jersey the team sponsored for its gay pride night game. Provorov said that bowing to the gay agenda violated his religious freedom and First Amendment rights.
That same month members of the New York Rangers team celebrated Pride Night on Friday but did not wear pride-themed jerseys or use rainbow tape during the event.
In 2022 several members of a rugby team in Sydney, Australia, refused to participate during the team’s gay pride pandering.
About seven members of the Sea Eagles refused to wear the gay pride jersey during the team’s game in July last year. Players added that the team planned its gay pride night without consulting them.
There were, of course, a lot of comments on Twitter over the Wild’s decision to opt out of wearing the jerseys:
Yet another @NHL team has caved to homophobia and abandoned the wearing of LGBT Pride jerseys for warm-ups.
While the team did execute other initiatives, it’s yet another slap in the face from the NHL and its players. #RainbowsAreScaryhttps://t.co/8GhtfntyFY
— Cyd Zeigler (@CydZeigler) March 8, 2023
Apparently the Minnesota Wild are afraid of gay people for some reason pic.twitter.com/0BNnQcF6Kb
— AZURE_CHIEF (@AZURE_CHIEF) March 8, 2023
There must be quite a few gutless characters within the Minnesota Wild franchise to do what they did. They’re either weak-minded or just plain homophobic. Or both. The last minute decision to not wear the Pride jerseys was disgraceful.
— Skippy Johnston (@LukeAFoley) March 8, 2023
Many others were all for the team’s decision to dump the jerseys:
I guess butchering children’s genitals wasn’t a super popular cause for the Minnesota Wild so they skipped over it last night.
I still find it remarkable people can bring themselves to line the pockets of these people. https://t.co/gXYewBqM2p
— Zach (@badzachtakes) March 8, 2023
Minnesota wild players as an organization refused to wear pride jerseys in warmups last night ( good for them ) now look at the woke mob freaks attacking A PRIVATE ORGANIZATION! I say F EM ! Let the freaks attack !!!
— hockeylife7 (@gilb28829212) March 8, 2023
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