All-Trans Hockey Team Hits The Ice
In Boston, the first all-trans hockey team played a historic friendship game in Cambridge. The tournament was hosted by Boston Pride Hockey, an LGBT+ organization with both cisgender as well as transgender members, ‘NBC News’ reports.
Hutch Hutchinson and New York player Aidan Cleary had a discussion about how they wanted to “create a space just for trans athletes”. After contacting Boston Pride Hockey, they decided to recruit a full team of trans players.
“We have a few trans members, but not enough to make an entire team, so we started to reach out — to other cities we play with in national tournaments — San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Canada — to see if there were other players who might be interested in something like this.” Mark Tikonoff, Vice President of Boston Pride Hockey, said.
After receiving lots of positive response, the group organized the event.
“For us, we didn’t realize how much we had in common, and we didn’t realize — I’m speaking personally — how much this community was underserved,” Tikonoff said. “As a cis gay man going into a locker room with other cis gay men, I don’t fear for my safety and I don’t fear judgment and I don’t fear exposing part of myself to people.”
Team Trans lost to Boston Pride Hockey in both of the weekend games, but Hutchinson said it was “an honor” to play alongside Browne and Jessica Platt — the two professional hockey players who competed in the tournament.
“The common thread was we have all never been on an all-trans team, and we have all gone through the struggle of ‘Where do I belong?’” Hutchinson said.
“We as trans people fight either big battles or little battles every day,” Hutchinson said. “This was an opportunity to walk into a locker room, and we didn't have to explain anything to each other — we’re here, we are trans, this is great.”
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