If You Can Play... You Can Play

A couple days ago, we shared a video from a group called "You Can Play." If you missed it, the video is below. The basic idea, in case you can't spare a minute of your time, is that the Brian and Patrick Burke have decided to carry the torch for Brendan Burke, and fight for the rights of gay athletes. It is a truly magnificent initiative, and the players involved should be commended.

More, after the jump.

The reason we haven't talked about this more until now? Trust. If the comment section turns into a political debate, it will be shut down. If you use any slur of any kind, you will be warned, and the comment removed. If you do it again, you will be banned from Hockey Wilderness. We do not want that to happen, so please... be respectful. If you can't be respectful, don't comment on this post.

This project is not about religion or politics. This project is about hockey, and is about putting the best team on the ice that you can. In a state obsessed with putting all Minnesotans on the ice, this may be a foreign concept, but it turns out that it takes a diverse team to win, and it doesn't matter at all where those players are from, what color their skin is, who their mom is, or who they might be in love with.

The project features many ways to help change the way we think, speak, and converse. The simplest way to get involved is simply to make a conscious effort to end the use of the word "gay" to mean anything other than what it means. Using it as a synonym for negativity is no longer acceptable, even behind closed doors in a room full of machismo.

This is something that may be uncomfortable for some. It will be seen as some how making the game softer, or a violation of free speech... a move toward the political correctness that seems to be so pervasive in our society. Spain addresses this better than anyone I have seen:

You all know me. I am about as politically correct as I am in love with stats. I say what I mean, and I mean what I say. I strongly believe that there are ways to get your point across without belittling a group of people in the process. People. Human beings. That's your punch line? That's how you want to get across that something is uncool or stupid? By demeaning an entire population of human beings? Ridiculous.

To further my own role in this process, I have taken the Captain's Challenge:

I have signed my name to this as the de facto captain of the Hockey Wilderness team. That team includes not only the staff, but also all of you in the comment section. We ban an amazing small amount of users when compared to the rest of SBNation. If there is one thing that can get you there through the express lane... use a slur of any kind.

Hockey Wilderness stands shoulder to shoulder with the You Can Play Project, and we ask each of our members to do the same. It doesn't matter who you are, where you are from, what color your skin is, or who you are in love with.

If you can play, you can play.