Penalty Box: Progressive sports media and LGBT advocates condemn Ivan Provorov for declining participation in the NHL’s Pride Night.

On Tuesday, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov declined to signify support for the National Hockey League’s “Pride Night” in support of LGBGT activism, citing his Russian Orthodox faith. Pride Night is part of the NHL’s “Hockey for Everyone” initiative, intended to use “the game of hockey—and the League’s global influence—to drive positive social change and foster more inclusive communities.”

When asked why he did not participate in Pride Night activities, in which players wore special LGBT-themed warmup jerseys and used rainbow tape on sticks that were later auctioned to raise money for the cause, Provorov emphasized that his was a strictly personal choice: “I respect everyone. I respect everybody’s choices. My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion.”

The response from LGBT advocates and progressive sports media figures was swift. “Stop letting bigots hide behind their cherry-picked religion,” tweeted Rachael Millanta, lead hockey writer for the sports gambling site BetMGM. “We are incredibly disappointed to see an athlete with a powerful platform choosing to exclude the LGBTQI+ community,” announced Athlete Ally founder and executive director Hudson Taylor. E.J. Hradek, a prominent Canadian analyst on the NHL network, advised Provorov to leave America, return to Russia, and get involved in the Ukraine conflict if he did not wish to “assimilate.”

“The concept of ‘team’ can mean a lot of things. . . . I would hope that, behind the scenes, there’s some more direct conversations around what it means to be a teammate,” declared Kurt Weaver, COO of You Can Play, the NHL’s contracted partner in LGBT advocacy. Weaver suggested that a single player’s non-participation in the promotion had “negatively impacted” Pride Night and proposed that his organization “work with” the Flyers and Provorov by providing “additional information and better understanding.”

Successful sports teams invariably integrate teammates with vastly different personalities, politics, and temperaments. The concept of “teamwork” implies an ability to put aside differences and focus on specific, collective goals. But Havel might agree that Weaver’s concept of “team” requires conformity and uniformity. Progressive ideology increasingly demands that people express support for causes regardless of their true feelings. The woke journalists expressing outrage that Provorov was even allowed to play that night may have missed the news that Virginia Tech recently paid $100,000 to settle a lawsuit by Kiersten Hening, a soccer player whose coach refused to play her after she declined to kneel during the national anthem in support of Black Lives Matter. Notwithstanding the settlement in favor of Hening, the case highlights the evolution of progressive activism from a form of dissent to something from which one may not dissent, from an appeal for tolerance to a demand for conformity.