Rainbow-coloured hockey tape will soon be hitting a centre ice near you now that a local man’s LGBTQ-awareness campaign has blown past its Kickstarter goal.
The Pride Tape Kickstarter campaign closed Wednesday, having solicited some $74,000 as of Tuesday morning – well in excess of its $54,000 goal.
An initiative of St. Albert’s Kristopher Wells, the campaign aimed to produce and distribute 10,000 free rolls of rainbow-coloured hockey tape to amateur teams across Canada to raise awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer youth in sports.
Wells, a professor at the University of Alberta and faculty director of the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services (ISMSS), said the campaign reached its goal within 24 hours of the Edmonton Oilers Skills Competition at Rexall Place on Jan. 24. The Oilers hit the ice that game with rainbow-taped sticks, becoming the first NHL team to use Pride Tape.
It was a historic moment that brought tears to many eyes, Wells said.
“I can’t say I’ve ever been prouder of my hockey team than I was that day.”
The campaign has been a slow burn over the last month, Wells said. It got a bump when the tape was featured on Hockey Night in Canada, and big one after the Oilers skills game.
“Since that time, we’ve had six or seven different NHL teams contact us all wanting to be able to use Pride Tape.”
Gay-straight alliances, pride festivals and schools have all chipped in donations, and parents have tweeted pictures of their kids making their own rainbow-taped hockey sticks.
“The conversation around the campaign has been really great and exciting.”
Wells said the donation that pushed them over the top was from the family of Brendan Burke, an openly gay student manager who worked to combat homophobia in hockey and died in a car crash in 2010. Burke’s brother, Patrick, went on to co-found You Can Play, which aims to fight homophobia in sports.
“We know a lot of LGBTQ athletes drop out of organized team sports because of the locker-room culture,” Wells said.
He hoped that the tape would get people to change the language and culture they use in sports so that people with any sexual or gender orientation will be welcome.
“We want it to move beyond the tape.”
Wells said that the campaign would now work with a professional tape company to produce the initial 10,000 rolls. Half of these will go to campaign backers, and half will be distributed to minor hockey teams throughout Canada. (The extra cash will be used to cover the cost of shipping.) If the tape is later picked up for mass production, all proceeds will go towards supporting LGBTQ youth through the ISMSS and You Can Play.
“If there’s interest and demand, you may see Pride Tape coming to another sport near you.”
The initial rolls should go out to campaign backers in six to eight weeks, Wells said.
Visit pridetape.com for updates.
