The Minnesota Wild hosted a second annual Pride Night on Tuesday, but LGBTQIA+ activists are upset the players did not wear rainbow-colored jerseys in warmups.
But some Twitter users applauded the decision by the Wild, as they objected to the activism that was allegedly being used as a pass-through to fund gender transition surgery for youth.
"The rainbow jerseys are being worn so @NHL teams can auction them off to help fund 'Gender Health' programs at local hospitals," one Twitter user wrote. "Is it okay for @mnwild players morally opposed to puberty blockers being administered to children to ask to not participate in wearing the jersey?"
Another user applauded the boycott to fund "butchering children's genitals."
"I guess butchering children's genitals wasn't a super popular cause for the Minnesota Wild so they skipped over it last night," one tweet read. "I still find it remarkable people can bring themselves to line the pockets of these people."
Still, the Wild celebrated their second Pride Night without the controversial Pride jerseys.
Players used Pride pucks and Pride tape on their sticks during warmups. Jack Jablonski, a former Minnesota high school hockey player who has been paralyzed since 2011 and came out as gay last year, performed the "Let's Play Hockey!" chant pregame.
Wild defenseman Jon Merrill donated tickets to Tuesday's game to Queerspace Collective, a mentorship program for LGBTQIA+ youth in Minnesota.
The Wild players wore Pride jerseys during the inaugural Pride Night last year but did not Tuesday.
"#mnwild players, who were supposed to wear Pride jerseys tonight and did so last season, are not wearing them in warmups," The Athletic's Michael Russo tweeted Tuesday night.
"Told it was an organizational decision. The Wild have several other Pride initiatives they are doing."
The Wild changed their Twitter avatar to a rainbow-covered logo, according to Outsports' Cyd Zeigler, who alleges the team deleted references to wearing rainbow-colored warmups.
This comes after the Philadelphia Flyers dealt with blowback over their Pride night.
Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov cited his Russian Orthodox religion as the reason he did not participate in pregame warmups when the team wore Pride-themed jerseys and used sticks wrapped in rainbow Pride tape.
The 26-year-old Provorov did not take part in the pregame skate with his teammates before their game against Anaheim on Jan. 17, when the Flyers celebrated their annual Pride night in celebration and support of the LGBTQ community.
"I respect everybody's choices," Provorov said after the game. "My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion. That's all I'm going to say."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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