I personally knew I was gay before the age of 12. I thought I was weird. I thought it was just me. If I had had a teammate do what Emily did, [organizing a You Can Play fundraiser] it would have changed my whole life for the better between the ages of 12 and 18.
To know you are not alone, that you have support, and that who you are is exactly who you should be is half of the battle. It’s not always easy to be out and be who you truly are, but it makes it a whole lot easier when one of your peers says to everyone that they will not stand for homophobia.
Like Hayley Wickenheiser and many other unsung female hockey stars, CWHL athletes play for the love of the game. While NHL players are getting annual paycheques in the millions, top-notch women hockey players are not being paid a cent — not even those who have earned five Olympic medals, a feat unmatched by any male hockey player.
The C.W.H.L. was created in the back room of a Toronto restaurant by former players from the National Women’s Hockey League in Canada (not to be confused with the American N.W.H.L.). That league failed in the face of ownership and financial disputes.
“I don’t think when we first started we were going to get past one year,” said Sami Jo Small, a founding member of the C.W.H.L., who competed in the 1998 Olympics and still plays for the Toronto Furies.
Early on, the C.W.H.L.’s foundation was unstable at times, and growth was uncertain. But under the leadership of Commissioner Brenda Andress, the C.W.H.L. never wavered in its plan for slow but steady advancements, and in recent years, a rise in sponsorships and audience in Canada has the league closer to its goal.
The more viewers the NWHL and CWHL have on their streamed games, the closer we get to seeing women’s hockey on television. Both leagues are streaming their games for free on YouTube this season and the stream qualities are great!
Treating female athletes like garbage as employees is not new, and it is not specific to the NWHL, or to the CWHL, or to women’s hockey. The brand new professional lacrosse league has stipends and no salaries. the NWSL pays non-national team players popcorn money and many of those women have to have outside jobs DESPITE the fact that it pays better than the NWHL. National Pro Fastpitch and the WNBA have made great strides in these areas, but it’s irresponsible and missing the point to focus the blowback on a league–any league–when this is a systemic problem.
Steel Phoenix Studios 