What Next | Daily News and Analysis How Hockey Got Drafted into the Culture Wars
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Feb 26, 2026 
Frankie de la Cretaz, sports writer who explores sports, gender, culture, and queerness. They discuss how a gay romance show and Olympic wins drew new, diverse hockey fans. They trace hockey’s GOP coding, the NHL’s mixed signals on LGBTQ inclusion, and why politics and locker-room culture shaped who gets claimed by fandom.
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Hockey As A Culture War Proxy
- Hockey has become a culture-war symbol as recent events highlighted its conservative leanings and public rituals.
- VoteHub found baseball and hockey most GOP-coded, estimating over 40% of NHL players registered Republican versus ~6% Democrats, which frames political claims on the sport.
Leaving NHL For Women's Hockey
- Frankie shifted from NHL fandom to women's hockey after realizing men's sports spaces felt unsafe for queer people and women.
- They grew up attending Florida Panthers games with their grandpa but stopped watching men's sports as they came out and saw those spaces as not made for them.
League Inclusion Driven By Optics Not Values
- The NHL has toggled visible inclusion efforts based on political calculations, not conviction, rolling back pride gestures when convenient.
- Examples include the Pride Tape ban (later reversed) and teams rebranding Pride Night as "Hockey Is For Everyone" to avoid the word pride amid concerns about Russian players.
