Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpha_Q
If you think this is just about wearing a jersey, I'm starting to believe that you're just innocently naive.
It's not just a jersey to me. It's about my son phoning me to say he was spit on because he had the audacity to hold his boyfriend's hand when walking down the street. It's about taking him to see his favorite team play and hearing people calling a member of the other team a ####ing fag. It's about the likes of Artur Pawlowski saying that the 2013 floods were God's punishment for homosexuality. We have to consider the ramifications of our words and our deeds, and Reimer's actions gave support to people like the above. Through his actions he encouraged and gave strength to voices of hatred. Of course he's entitled to his opinion, but everyone is entitled to call him on it. Him and his supporters.
One thing I have noticed; I lurked this website probably 2002ish before I signed up. There use to be a lot of passively homophobic comments, but that has almost completely gone away. I see many, many people now sticking up for LGBTQ+ rights, and many of them don't have an emotional stake in it, they just want to be good citizens who support the entire community. It makes me proud to be a member of this forum.
As I said above, if you think this issue isn't deeper than a mere jersey, I suggest you think a little harder about it. You might try taking Reimer's words and applying them to the support of women in hockey, or Jewish people in hockey, and see how it sounds.
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A common refrain in this thread is "it's just a jersey... Just put the thing on."
Reimer has provided no support to the people you describe above. In fact he has stated exactly the opposite. Lumping Reimer in with the people you describe in your post is a straw man argument.