‘Something I’ve never seen done.’ Brock McGillis educates 100 teams in 100 days on inclusivity with Culture Shift Tour

Nov 17, 2023

‘Something I’ve never seen done.’ Brock McGillis educates 100 teams in 100 days on inclusivity with Culture Shift Tour

For every step hockey takes toward inclusivity, it seems to take a step backward these days. We won’t see a Pride Jersey on NHL ice anytime soon, and it took quite the fight just to keep rainbow tape on sticks. It serves as a reminder that the sport still has a long way to go before it’s a truly welcoming space.

But Brock McGillis, the first openly gay male hockey player to play professionally, is doing his best to change that. Times 100.

Speaking to Daily Faceoff earlier this week, McGillis, 40, was preparing to board a flight for Vancouver. It was the first of many he’ll take in the next several months for his ambitious new project: The Culture Shift Tour.

McGillis came out in 2016 and has become the leading voice for LGBTQ+ rights in the sport. He’s the co-founder of the Alphabet Sports Collective, a queer-led non-profit organization devoted to creating safer environments for people of all sexual identities. He’s therefore no stranger to speaking engagements and travelling all over the continent to help teams and schools. But the Culture Shift Tour is a level up in intensity even by his lofty standards. Beginning this week, McGillis will visit 100 high-school-aged minor hockey teams in 100 days to help educate youths on how to make hockey more inclusive.

“I wanted to do something that I’ve never seen done,” McGillis said. “I wanted to challenge myself and do something that would give visibility, help create welcome environments in sport and also something that was a little more feel-good than everything we’ve been seeing in the last while.”

Many of McGillis’ efforts have included working with pro teams like the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks and multiple NCAA schools, but he has also focused a lot in the past on working with high-school aged teams and players. Their age group is impressionable and, at the higher skill levels, players spend almost all their time with their teammates due to travel. That means any indoctrinated beliefs – including conformist or homophobic values – can be baked into a large group.

“I think the beauty of this age group is, they’re about to go on to junior and different levels,” he said. “They’re a little older, in high school, they’re kind of influential, and what they do, what they say and how they act is copied by younger players coming up. It’s stuff they’ll take with them to the next levels and ultimately to the highest levels.”

This age group has massive potential for a breakthrough, McGillis said, because they’re so much more exposed to people of different backgrounds and sexual orientations compared to generations before them.

“In school, kids are coming out younger and younger, and they’re in class with them, they’re seeing it on social media and in television shows,” he said. “So at a younger age, they’re exposed to more. That said, their language hasn’t evolved. So what they adhere to in locker room culture hasn’t evolved the same way their thoughts at school or maybe away from the rink have. That’s something we need to address and make more inclusive. I think it’s possible. I think we’ll get there. I think it’s going to take some time.”

So how will McGillis connect with this age group during each visit? It starts with sharing his own experiences. McGillis played the game at an elite level in his teen years as a goaltender for the OHL’s Soo Greyhounds and Windsor Spitfires, and during those days before he came out, he struggled to navigate the locker room environment and the prejudiced language that was commonplace in it.

Then, he shares stories that can help illustrate to his audience what they can become: shift makers, as he calls them. For instance: During his says as a youth goalie coach, one of his colleagues called out someone for using homophobic language and demanded that they do 50 pushups to atone. In that moment, the Pushup Pact was born, designed to remedy the language flying around hockey dressing rooms. That’s just one example of an ally standing up to cause a culture shift. McGillis uses stories like that one to help teens understand how they can make a difference on their own teams.

The agenda for each visit also includes breakout sessions on conformity and, specifically, why it helps for hockey teams to embrace individuality. Understanding that everyone can be a well-rounded person with unique influences builds a foundation for inclusiveness. It’s a lesson that applies not just to players, but to their parents, too.

“Too often we just focus on school and hockey,” he said. “Well, we’re multi-faceted beings. We’re not just this one-dimensional thing. The more we embrace our uniqueness and our individuality, the less likely we are to judge others and the more likely we are to feel good in this space.”

When the Culture Shift Tour was unveiled earlier this month, the response blew McGillis away. Hundreds of teams reached out wanting to be part of it. At this rate, it’s fair to wonder if 100 teams in 100 days could give way to 100 more teams in 100 more days and beyond.

“They want this,” he said. “They want inclusive, supportive environments. Whether we don’t believe it because of what we see on social media sometimes or not, it’s the reality. This is the culture people want. They’re tired of the old culture of sport, and we can evolve it.”

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