[This article appears in the January/February 2020 issue of Boston Spirit magazine. Subscribe for free today.]
On the ice, there is one hockey organization in the Boston area that guarantees an inclusive experience for members of the LGBTQIA community: Boston Pride Hockey.
Pride Hockey consists of multiple components, including Thursday night scrimmages from 9 p.m. to 9:50 p.m. at Simoni Skating Rink in Cambridge. For these scrimmages, which occur weekly from late August to early April, players of all different athletic backgrounds who are at least 18 years old are welcome to join; they charge $20 per session, but the first one is free to encourage participation.
Check out the schedule for January scrimmages at bostonpridehockey.org.
Additionally, Pride Hockey plays eight games against teams from the Skate for the 22 Foundation throughout New England, and people can sign up to play in those contests on a game-by-game basis.
“We’ve had a lot of members in similar circumstances, and there’s a lot of LGBT service members,” Pride Hockey President Greg Sargent said. “These veterans put their lives at risk for us, so if we can help them succeed in life by playing hockey with them, that’s great. They help us a lot too. It’s fantastic.”
To help people learn the sport and improve on their ability, Pride Hockey offers skill sessions every other Sunday in Cambridge.
Pride Hockey made history in November with its Friendship Series. They developed and scrimmaged Team Trans, the first all-transgender ice hockey team on record.
Team Trans featured 16 players, including Jack Henderson.
“Playing with Team Trans was an interesting experience because BPH is my home team—it’s where I came out as nonbinary and where I learned to play hockey,” Henderson said. “There’s already this special energy when we play LGBTQ hockey in general, and playing with Team Trans was that same feeling, but concentrated. Trans people aren’t represented in sports or are actively forced out of them, so being part of a team that was exuberantly trans was exciting, both for us as hockey players getting to skate with others like us, but also as trans athletes making a statement about our deserved place in sports.”
Team Trans will continue existing. They are scheduling another Friendship Series sometime in the first half of 2020 in Madison, Wisconsin. Sargent said the long-term goal is for Team Trans to have their own league in New England.
On the international level, Pride Hockey has participated in the Gay Games where they are five-time medalists.
Pride Hockey initially came to existence as a team to compete in the 1990 Gay Games. The Pride took gold at the 2018 games in Paris.
“The goodness and the fun we enjoy weekly with our 30–40 people blown up by a thousand,” Sargent said of the experience. “It’s usually in a pretty cool city and it’s very exciting. Usually, we try to stack our teams to make sure we win. We’re competitive there. And now we have LGBT hockey friends from across the world.”
Pride Hockey is expanding. New this season, the organization hosts scrimmages in Providence, Rhode Island. The first one in 2020 is set for Monday, January 13, at Meehan Auditorium on Brown University’s campus (9 p.m. start).
“We’re definitely in a growth period,” Sargent said. “We have a couple of members who are from Rhode Island who will take care of that. We’ve had three scrimmages down there and we’re growing numbers, but it’ll take another half a season for it be successful on its own.”
Sargent also noted Pride Hockey wants to start a summer street hockey program this coming July.
More at bostonpridehockey.org.
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