I love this story! Two teenage girl hockey players, Alyssa McLean and Sierra Paul, came out as lesbians to their fellow teammates after a rival team began taunting them with homophobic slurs. The whole team banded together and distributed rainbow-coloured buttons with the word homophobia crossed out. Now, the whole team is being awarded the 2009 New Brunswick Human Rights Award. Alyssa and Sierra did face a backlash after their public declaration, such as, being refused service at a local fast-food restaurant and players from a rival team would not shake hands with them.
Defence against homophobia earns team human rights award
CBC reports:
The girls' hockey team at the high school in Woodstock, N.B., has won a provincial human rights award for the way they defended two teammates after they came out as gay.
The Woodstock High School Lady Thunder hockey team has won the 2009 New Brunswick Human Rights Award for refusing to let rival teams taunt their teammates about their sexual orientation. The Human Rights Commission says it wanted to reward the team for its action in standing up against homophobia. "Individually, and as a team, these women exemplify the leadership qualities in the promotion of human rights that make them worthy recipients of the 2009 New Brunswick Human Rights Award," said Gordon Porter, chair of the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission.
"The way in which these young women responded to these incidents by promoting respect and acceptance for sexual orientation diversity within their hockey league serves as a model for the promotion of human rights among youth," said Gordon Porter, chair of the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission in a statement. Read more at CBC.
