A "bold and important" step

I haven't posted since Monday, but my excuse is that I've been BUYING A HOUSE! Well, a condo-townhouse, but still. Things are still very busy, but a story caught my eye this morning that I had to share.
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Brian Burke is a big name in hockey. He is the General Manager for arguably the most popular team in the NHL, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he's been around for a long time. When he talks, people listen.

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His son, Brendan, loved hockey all his life. He played a lot when he was young, and in college he worked for the school's team as the video coordinator. Brendan was also gay.

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He was terrified to come out to his father, a big, tough, kind of scary Irishman, but he did at Christmas in 2007. His father was accepting. Then, in November of last year, with the full support of his university team, Brendan took the bold step of coming out publicly. His story was front page news in Toronto and made headlines across the continent.

Now we all know that professional sports culture is pretty homophobic. Hockey may be the worst. There are no openly gay players in the NHL, and to the best of my knowledge, no ex-players have ever come out. So to have as high profile and respected a name in hockey as Brian Burke stand by his son and encourage a dialogue about homophobia and machismo in hockey was huge.

The story took a tragic turn a few short months later when Brendan was killed in a car accident. He was just 21 years old.

Brian Burke has since been advocating on his son's behalf, keeping his memory and his voice alive. In May he partnered with Egale Canada to promote their new website, MyGSA.ca, which provides support and resources to young people and teachers in an effort to make schools safer for gay youth. Burke said at the time "I hate bullies. We have to get to the point where everyone can go to school free of fear."

Now this morning I read that Brent Sopel, a player who just won the Stanley Cup with Chicago, is going to take the iconic trophy to Chicago's Gay Pride Parade tomorrow as a tribute to Brendan (as you may remember from this post, each player gets to spend a day with the Cup the summer after it is won). Sopel started his career with the Vancouver Canucks when Brian Burke was the General Manager there, and the two became close.

Burke has stated in an email "This is not a small step - it is a bold and important one." I couldn't agree more.