You Can Play Night: 1st Ever in Philadelphia

You Can Play Night: Philadelphia Flyers 1st to Host Event

One day after it was announced the Edmonton Oilers are beginning to use pride tape, the Philadelphia Flyers will host the first ever You Can Play night at Wells Fargo Center Monday Night versus the Boston Bruins.

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Co-founded by NHL Director of Player Safety Patrick Burke, You Can Play was designed to help with the inclusion of youth of a different sexual orientation or gender identity. It’s to help raise awareness, and ensure equality and respect for those individuals. Since being established, You Can Play has partnered with all 30 NHL teams. Several players have already appeared in public service announcements.

Claude Giroux via NHL.com,

“If you can play, you can play,” he said. “It’s a great game and we just hope everybody can have the chance to play it. It’s fun to see what’s going to happen, how the event’s going to go. Everyone is in.”

via NHL.com,

You Can Play will have a presence off the ice at Wells Fargo Center, and the Flyers will highlight You Can Play’s history and efforts to make sports a more inclusive place for all athletes. Local LGBT organizations in attendance will also be highlighted during the game.

In addition the Flyers will honor Helen “Nellie” Fitzpatrick, who has served as director of the Mayor of Philadelphia’s office of LGBT Affairs since January 2015. It was a temporary post that voters made permanent in November 2015 to advocate for LGBT issues. Fitzpatrick is a 2012 OutProud Award recipient, a 2013 Pillar of the Community Award recipient, and a 2014 Voice of Protection and Advocacy recipient.

“We support You Can Play’s mission and are happy to help shine a spotlight on this important League-wide initiative,” Flyers chief operating officer Shawn Tilger said.

The Philadelphia Flyers first got involved with the You Can Play initiative back when Patrick Burke was still a scout for the team. At the time, the Flyers were the first to release a video in support, which featured Claude Giroux, R.J. Umberger, and then Flyers James van Riemsdyk and Scott Hartnell.

Patrick Burke is truly humbled that his old organization (Philadelphia) is the first to step up with a You Can Play night.

Patrick Burke via NHL.com,

“Looking back it’s amazing to see how far You Can Play has come in such a short time. It’s a real tribute to the leadership in our League, from the League office to the clubs to the players themselves, that we’ve embraced this movement so strongly and visibly. There’s a lot of work left to be done, but we are excited for moments like these that really move things along.”

While still deemed a “controversial topic” by society’s standards, the majority of the general public is more widely accepting of those of a different sexual orientation/gender identity. The more public figures that step up, and the more we continue to have open discussions on hot-button topics, the easier the transition will be to social normality.

Hats go off to the Philadelphia Flyers for being the first to step up in hosting a You Can Play night. It shouldn’t take long for 29 other NHL teams to follow suit. Between You Can Play night’s, and teams/players using pride tape, the NHL is on its way to helping raise awareness on a much larger scale. When major sports leagues step up this way, it boasts a very loud voice to influence public opinion.

Next: Pride Tape: Edmonton Oilers First to Step Up

Most people these days are too busy with their lives to think for themselves, they want to be told what to think. All the NHL is doing is helping push its fans in the same direction the general public’s been headed for years. It’s 2016 folks, if you’re not willing to be open to change and adapt your opinions as certain things become more socially acceptable, then we’re no better than generations ahead of us who stuck to racism and sexism through the 20th century.

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