A gay referee pursues a place in the NHL — and wonders if hockey will ever accept him

National Post / New York Times ^ | April 24, 2018 | Jason Buckland

[Loyalist]

This is a story about love and betrayal.

Andrea Barone was barely 18 months old when he first set out on the ice, his tiny legs shaking and pushing behind a chair along the cold surface. If, in Montreal, hockey is religion, then this was baptism by ritual, every morning practice, every unsteady drag of his skates drawing him closer to the game he was falling for.

....

Barone is sure of two things about himself: He is a hockey man, and he is a gay man. In the sport he has devoted his life to, this has proved an untenable intersection.

[Vermont Lt]

Because he would get the crap beat out of him.

[fwdude]

What difference does his sexual preference have to do with this job?

Everything. He's "gay" after all. Bow down to his "gayness."

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Ridiculous!

You can’t even watch a sports game anymore without being subjected to the pink lipstick sodomite brigade.

[SaveFerris]

I'd say it would be time for this. A lot of this.

[Rebelbase]

I don’t know if any sports referees are celibate and damn sure don’t need to know if they’re gay.

[Loyalist]

Andrea is the Italian for Andrew.

[Yaelle]

It’s sad to see that my favorite sport is the last team sport to be accepting of different orientations and to stop using gay slurs. But it seems like it’s caught up. Who cares who the guy sleeps with? Get the puck into the net or stop it from going in, it’s all good with me.