As a player who is both loved and hated around the NHL, Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand is confident that the league will agree on one thing: acceptance.
Marchand is adamant that professional hockey players would accept a gay teammate if a player were to come out.
“Guys would accept it, no question,” said Marchand, in an interview with Joe McDonald of ESPN.com. “We’re a team in the [dressing] room and a family. It doesn’t matter what different beliefs guys have, or where they come from, or whatever the case may be. Guys would accept it.
“In the room we’re a family. That’s the way it is on a hockey team, and that’s the way it will always be.”
The interview came in the aftermath of a public defence that Marchand took over the matter.
At the end of December, Marchand took to Twitter to call out a particular user who reportedly used a homophobic slur.
The original user’s tweet has since been deleted.
For Marchand, it wasn’t about standing up to a critic, but doing what is right.
“I want to stand up for what I believe in, and I don’t think it’s right when people say things or bash people because of their sexual orientation,” he said. “I have friends who are in gay relationships, and I don’t think it’s right for people to be against that. Everyone is allowed to find love whatever way that is, so I felt like that was a time to say something, especially nowadays.”
