When Nashville Predators prospect Luke Prokop declared that he was gay on July 19, he received a warm response from the Vancouver Canucks.

“It’s a big week for hockey, but no announcement will be more important than this,” the Canucks tweeted. “It’s a groundbreaking day. Thank you Luke.”

https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1417137738260746243

It’s not the first time that the Canucks have expressed a positive message to the LGBT community. In 2017, Canucks players Jake Virtanen and Troy Stetcher wore rainbow skirts and leis in the Vancouver Pride parade. And back in 2012, then Canuck Manny Malhotra became the first NHL player to march in a Pride parade.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman also issued a statement thanking Prokop "for sharing his truth and for being so brave".

However, a Monash University researcher who studies the use of homophobic language in sports says that these efforts will not make sports more welcoming for LGBT children and youths.

“There is a huge gap from a professional hockey team putting out a feel-good message about LGBT people and the actual pressures to conform to a behaviour on a junior hockey team,” Erik Denison told the Straight by phone.

Denison, a former Vancouver journalist, insisted that professional sports organizations are “literally doing nothing” of value in to stop the use of homophobic language in the sport. And he dismissed the “happy-talk” videos by athletes, pro-LGBT+ social-media posts, and professional Pride games as having no real positive impact.

“We know that because Canadian hockey teams have been doing Pride games since about 2013, and research has found that Canadian teenage hockey players use just about the same amount of homophobic language as kids in any other sport or country,” Denison said.

According to Denison, nearly 30 peer-reviewed papers in sports-management journals have come to the conclusion that professional Pride games and rainbow-themed social-media posts create a “delusion of inclusion”.

“So you’re essentially creating an impression in the public that you’re actually doing something about these really serious problems when, in reality, you’re really doing nothing,” Denison said. “You’re just posting something on social media.”

In reality, he added, B.C. Hockey is responsible for youth hockey and it's being let off the hook through the marketing work of the NHL and professional teams.

In 2018, Canucks goalie Anders Nilsson declared in an interview in Sweden that homophobic language was a huge problem in youth hockey leagues, noting that the words “fag” and “faggot” were common slurs. Nilsson said that this is chasing talented gay players out of hockey before they even have a chance to make the National Hockey League.

Denison pointed out that homophobic language is more common in contact sports like hockey, rugby, and football than in sports where there’s far less contact.

“We now know that using homophobic banter in that kind of culture is strongly associated with gender-based violence,” Denison said. “It’s a form of gender-based violence to call someone a ‘fag’. You’re not calling them that because they’re gay. You’re calling them that because you’re suggesting that they’re a woman. They’re feminine”

Therefore, Denison argued, reducing homophobic language in sports has the potential to get athletes to curb the use of it in other parts of their lives.

“That’s going to help address this pervasive gender-based violence problem that we can’t solve,” Denison said. “It not only helps the LGBT+ kids who are being excluded from sport and are being seriously harmed by language.”

So what works if rainbow-themed social-media posts and professional Pride games have proven to be a bust? Denison said that if a professional team holds a Pride game in conjunction with a community-based team doing the same thing, it can yield positive benefits.

“Clubs that host those games use half the homophobic language than clubs that never do that,” he stated. “Two studies have shown that.”

In addition, he also believes that captains and coaches on community-based teams can have a big effect on curbing homophobic and sexist language. Tht’s because they can help break the cycle of young athletes gaining “social capital”—i.e., becoming more popular—by either laughing at or by using homophobic language.

Denison noted that these young athletes use this language because they believe it’s harmless and that everyone in their environment is straight.

“You want to conform and you want to belong,” he said. “And then you teach it to the next generation.”

Denison maintained the problem with social-media posts and Pride games from professional hockey teams is that they do not address the central issue of homophobic and sexist language, which drives young LGBT+ people away from sports.

“These norms have just been allowed to continue,” he said.