Fail to prepare, prepare to fail — a Pride Night debacle in the UK’s Elite League shows capitulating to homophobes is never the right call.
The Fife Flyers are the oldest professional hockey team in the U.K., having been established back in 1938. One of the most ignominious chapters has just been written into their long history.
Their 6-1 home loss to the Guildford Flames kept them rooted to the foot of the Elite Ice Hockey League standings.
At the same time, they lost the trust of the wider local LGBTQ community in their corner of Scotland, alienated a significant chunk of their own fanbase, and abandoned their dignity.
All because one player was able to sabotage the Flyers’ Pride Night with his bigotry, when he should never have been afforded the opportunity.
Zach Sullivan is a rare example of an active player in men’s pro hockey who came out. He says watching the “gay hockey show” was difficult.
The EIHL has been celebrating its seventh annual round of Pride Games, and the Flyers had hitherto been proudly flying the flag for inclusion.
They unveiled their rainbow stripe jersey designs on social media at the start of the week, and followed up with several posts looking back at past Pride Nights.
A post shared by Fife Flyers (@fifeflyers)
But the warning sign was right there in the comments on that post unveiling the new jerseys. A fan commented on Instagram: “Booth actually going to wear one?”
The player he was referring to was David Booth, who has more than 500 NHL appearances to his name and who signed for Fife in late November.
Now 41, the Detroit-born wing has been a journeyman pro since leaving the Red Wings in 2018. The NHL’s official website ran a feature article on his hockey globe-trotting only last month.
What appears to have never changed is Booth’s anti-LGBTQ views. In October, his X account shared a tweet that mentioned “LGBTQ activists” and linked them to having a “hatred of Christianity.”
That followed an exchange with another user on matters of faith, in which Booth replied: “You shouldn’t force your belief on me.” Scroll back on X and search on YouTube, and you can find more of Booth’s musings, from whether hockey should mark Pride to “the science of X&Y chromosomes.”
Frankly, the clues were all there that he was unlikely to get on board with wearing a rainbow jersey, and so it proved at the Fife Ice Arena.
Just hours before face-off, the Flyers dropped a “clarification” — the players would only wear the Pride jerseys for the warm-up. They’d be back in their standard kit for the match itself.
In classic corporate double-speak, the Flyers’ statement continued: “This approach allows us to support Pride Night while also respecting the diversity of backgrounds and personal beliefs within our playing group.”
A moment for our pride threads ❤️🏳️🌈 pic.twitter.com/gxl5dTDmAM
Ah, yes. In a situation reminiscent of botched 2023 Pride Nights involving the Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks and some other NHL teams, the decision had been made to prioritize the “personal beliefs” of one person above everyone else.
Not least those who would have bought tickets precisely because it was a Pride game, having been told the team would wear the rainbow jerseys. They might even have been planning to buy one in the post-game auction, which was confidently promoted.
Naturally, the backlash was immediate, and not just on social media. The local LGBTQ charity slated to receive proceeds from that auction walked out of the arena.
The Hive Kirkcaldy also said it would refuse the Flyers’ money and donations. “The Hive will always stand up for LGBTQIA+ rights, and we will not be silenced,” they stated.
It’s a seriously bad look when a charity says it would rather go without funding than accept “Pride” money from a team that drops a commitment made to its fans as easily as it drops a puck.
A post shared by TheHive (@thehive_fife)
As was his plan, Booth didn’t join his teammates for the warm-up, but then, in an ironic twist, he went off injured just minutes after the game began.
Maybe he should have focused on muscle responsiveness over moral righteousness.
After nearly 24 hours of fans venting on Facebook, the Flyers put out another club statement Sunday.
“We want to acknowledge the hurt and disappointment many in our community felt due to our decisions on Pride Night.
“We are truly sorry for the impact this had and understand why it has caused upset amongst the community.
“The Fife Flyers are committed to inclusion and aim to be a welcoming club for the LGBTQ+ community and for everyone who supports our team.
“We will reflect on this, continue listening, and work to ensure our values are better reflected in how we move forward.”
Of course, it’s all too late now. The time for the listening exercise has passed. It should have been made clear to the players that the slogan “Hockey is for Everyone” wouldn’t be up for debate on gameday itself.
A year ago, in an interview with Outsports, Zach Sullivan — the Elite League’s only out LGBTQ player — issued a warning that the Elite League’s Pride Games were at risk of becoming “tokenistic,” with teams making rainbow jerseys de riguer while dodging dialogue with players about the welcome message that wearing them sends out.
“Until every team realizes that this goes beyond hockey, beyond how many tickets we’re going to sell this week or what position we are in the league, there’s still work to be done,” he said.
It’s a timely reminder for British sport more widely. Next weekend, the Premier League will launch “With Pride,” developed following the fallout from Rainbow Laces in December 2024 and the subsequent decision to move on from the Stonewall campaign.
While players will no longer be asked to wear rainbow captain’s armbands or Pride-themed anthem jackets — both of which have caused disruption in recent seasons — there is still the chance that a refusal, rejection or remark of some kind could end up overshadowing the whole initiative.
Simply hoping for the best instead of agreeing on players’ engagement beforehand is a recipe for an absolute mess. And if they insist on sitting it out, they can easily come up with a phantom illness or injury rather than let their prejudice spoil the proceedings.
As for the Fife Flyers, Booth was missing Sunday as they sank to an 8-0 loss at Sheffield Steelers to remain at the foot of the standings.
It put the seal on a weekend when the Flyers truly put their foot in it.
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Jon Holmes is a British sports journalist based in London, specialising in soccer (though he calls it football). He is the founder and lead of industry network group Sports Media LGBT+, and works on the Football v Homophobia campaign.
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