Proud to be a Hockey Fan

Last month the Stanley Cup (as well as the Chicago Cubs) decided to take part in Chicago's pride parade. A friend who lives in the city snapped this picture. For me it represents a very cool blending of my life and our family legacy.

Here is a clip from an online article announcing the appearance. "While players from this year's lineup won't be on the team's float -- they'll be busy playing the White Sox -- "Mr. Cub" Ernie Banks will.

Blackhawks defenseman Brent Sopel will be carrying the Stanley Cup in the parade to honor Brendan Burke, the son of Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke. Brendan Burke came out as a gay man shortly before dying in a car accident in February.

Brendan Burke was a student at Miami University in Ohio and worked with the school's hockey team. After opening up about his sexuality to the team, he spoke publicly about his experience growing up as a gay hockey player.

Sopel, who will march in the parade with his wife and children -- and the Cup, of course -- said he wants to promote tolerance.

"Everyone has feelings and everyone is a person," Sopel said. "That's what we continue to promote to our kids. I hope [the gay community] gets equality and what they're looking for."

It can be tough for gay people involved in athletics to come out, said Northwestern University professor Lane Senrich, who teaches a course on gay history in the U.S.

"When it comes down to it, for all the progress we've made in other arenas, athletics seems to be one of the last places where we haven't made much progress," Senrich said.

"We have these very confined notions of what it means to be a man," he said. "We usually associate gays as sissies. If you can admit that some big successful football player is gay ... it really challenges our notions of what it means to be gay."