When Tradition and Taunts Collide: Gay Hockey Fans Criticize Garden

[meegbear]

During the final 10 minutes of many Rangers home games, the spotlights focus on Section 407 as Larry Goodman, a longtime season-ticket holder, pumps up the crowd with a goofy dance.

As Goodman’s routine is broadcast on the giant monitors above the ice, a familiar chant picks up momentum. "Ho-mo Lar-ry!" the crowd shouts. "Ho-mo Lar-ry!"

The chant is one example of what several gay hockey fans describe as a toxic atmosphere during Rangers games and that Madison Square Garden, which owns the team, is not doing nearly enough to address their concerns.

Kevin Jennings, a Rangers fan who is gay, said he stopped attending home games for about a month this season because he felt so uncomfortable with the homophobic epithets that are shouted to the players.

Ray Stankes, 50, of Bayside, Queens, said he canceled season tickets he had had for 25 years in part because of the antigay environment.

"This is a place where I grew up, and I never really felt uncomfortable at the Garden," Stankes said. "I didn’t wear it on my sleeve that I’m gay. If I take a friend who is also gay who, for lack of a better term, is not as masculine, I’m always sitting there a little tense. Like, is somebody going to say something to us? And it’s made it not quite as fun as it used to be."

Other fans recalled that the crowd booed when the name of the New York City Gay Hockey Association, a recreational league, flashed briefly across the jumbo screen.

"It’s a pervasive problem," said Jennings, who is the executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a nonprofit group that promotes tolerance of gays and lesbians. "I took my godson a few months ago. I won’t take him again. He’s 6. I don’t want him looking around and seeing other men engaging in this behavior and thinking this is the way you behave."

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/sports/hockey/21fans.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=sports&pagewanted=print

[xchrom]

1. this just underlines that the public accepts

gay hate spewed all over the place.

how many straights do ya think stayed away because they were uncomfortable -- even those who nominally ''support'' us.

reminds me of another event that gets attention around here at DU.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. What event?

>>>reminds me of another event that gets attention around here at DU>>>

[hulklogan]

2. I love hockey, but its supporters are more "white bread" than any other sport

at least for American teams. When I lived in Seattle, I saw a group of skinheads (costumed in boots and suspenders and everything) at every Thunderbirds game I went to. I always found the crowds at baseball/NBA/WNBA/football games to be much more classy.

I don't think I would ever go to a Rangers game now, after reading this. I'd rather go to the NYC Gay Hocky Association's games. It's about the sport not the team, right?