eyes full of stars

the way pwhl fans have made Britta Curl the scapegoat for the league will never not piss me off, not because I agree with her beliefs, but because by scapegoating one player and directing all your attention to loudly hating her you don't actually do anything real.

Also, aside from the fact that Britta Curl is not the only player with her beliefs in the league, I actually don't think yelling at the league to fire her is productive! I actually don't think a business should be allowed to discriminate against employees based on their political beliefs! I think that's a dangerous precedent to set, personally!

Like you don't have to spend your money in support of a franchise with players who are loud about politics you don't agree with. But saying they don't deserve to pay their bills and feed themselves is not exactly the most progressive take either.

I just want to also add a masterlist of resources for things you, pwhl blogger, can concretely do to combat transphobia in the PWHL!

Firstly, use this template/guide to email the league and the pwhpa to demand they develop, release, and implement the gender inclusion policy they still owe us.

Additionally, if you have the financial means, pledge to donate in Curl's name. I personally did $5 per point and $1 per PIM this past season, but you can choose whatever donation makes sense for you! Also, here are some places you can donate that advocate for LGBTQ people in hockey/detroit/both:

You Can Play

The Ruth Ellis Center (see @whitecherrylavender's reblog for more details)

The Detroit Chapter of Stonewall Sports (see @royaletigertowelpapertowelpp's reblog for more)

From u/pythagoreanpentagram on reddit: Stand With Trans and Transgender Michigan

You can also follow along with a Detroit fan-led effort to fundraise for trans nonprofits at puckcurl.com

Ideas I just have off the top of my head. Yes it goes beyond just transphobia and the league itself but everything is connected all the time and if you take any step everything becomes closer together.

Book club! Theres a lot of great hockey books out there about women’s hockey or hockey with marginalized players, or about any kind of sports you may be interested in. Theres books about the systems and how to intersectional in your thinking. We can’t control others, but we can control ourselves, and working to unlearning systems of oppression in our heads is in impactful step in all parts of our life. Here are four books I can recommend and personally read.

All of these books are available in e-book, paper back, and audio book. Check out your local library or ask if they can get it!

Testosterone: An Unauthorized Biography By Rebecca M. Jordan-Young and Katrina Karkazis

Let Us Play: Winning the Battle for Gender Diverse Athletes By Harrison Browne and Rachel Browne

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot by Mikki Kendall

Blackness Is a Gift I Can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey by Renee Hess

I’ll talk about “Blackness is a Gift I Can Give Her” more later, because I love it a lot, but I am still reading through it. But the author is a founder of Black Girl Hockey Club which you should also give your love, attention and support too.

Harrison Brown is also a big advocate for athlete ally.

Summer is a great time to go through your old clothes if you have any. Take anything that doesn’t fit, or you don’t like (and is in good condition) and see if any shelters, resource groups, or even your own community members needs or like them!

Volunteer! Even if it’s your local food pantry a couple times per month, or any other local group you feel inclined to support. But it doesn’t have to be with a need based organization. If you love sports and know ever bare bones about it see if you can’t volunteer to coach or ref a kids league! (Older if you are comfortable and have the skills). You make an impact by making sure sports are a safe place for those kids! Queer kids will get to play the sports they love longer if people are there making sure discrimination and bullying doesn’t happen, and if you are an adult they can be like in the future.

If you have old supplies and no interest in playing the sport again, see if there is a local group you can donate too! Or if you can do something to even raise a little money to help someone get an extra ball or time on the field.

Think about the disabled fans in your community too! You can’t fix a structural problem, but you can take pictures of the stadium and the stairs, you can offer to car pool to events, if you are able too you can mask, and if the location your group is meeting at has a broken accessibility feature figure out how to report it to matinence. Bring an extra set of sealed ear plugs and if you see some struggling with the noise hand it over. Rules can be hard to read and access if reading and comprehension are a struggle. Are you using slurs? (Remember reclamation has a long history and if you are using it as an insult it’s not reclamation it’s just a slur).

Be encouraging to new fans! So much bigotry has kept people out of sports spaces. Answer questions you see online with love, share information about your favorite teams and stats. If you want to talk about it someone new probably wants to learn about it

Do informal surveys and interviews if you have access to elders in your life who have played sports, or someone who has been watching women’s sports for a long time. It may not be scientific studies, but that’s valuable information! Documenting it means sharing knowledge and refusing to let it get lost in one persons memory.

Support CTE research and education. If you’ve had a lot of head trauma with sports consider giving your brain to research or document how it has impacted you and share it at the level you are comfortable sharing with. If you know things about player safety, share that too!

If you have played a sport and know about the pathways higher up (especially in hockey) see if you can share that information. First generation athletes often have a hard time accesses that information even down to the things they need to buy, what skills they should be training, what organizations are there to help. You might not know but someone you know might be able to help!

Take up space! Yes! You! You might not know anything or feel like anything special. Who cares? Be as visable and loud as it is safe for you to be. Make social media posts, YouTube videos, blogs, art (please make art!!!!) articles, community spaces, info graphics, signs, show up in person. You deserve to take up space in the world and by doing so you can open space for other people. (Listen to people of different marginalizations of you when you fuck up, a normal thing that will happen, fix the behavior and then move on. I promise it can be okay.) Yes. There are mean terrible people and bots out there. They suck. And we can’t stop them. But we can use the block button. Block them, and move on, because they do not deserve access to you, and you deserve to not spend 3 days in an internet fight crying or getting worked up. And if they have less engagement, less of them will dog pile on. While you are taking up space, celebrate the space of others. (It doesn’t need to get any engagement or for you to be involved in something popular. Crete and consume for the love of yourself and others.)

Make lists of resources in your area, books or videos, or interviews. Groups who do good work or let other people know about your queer run sport film club in the area.

Create resources. You and your friends want to play (insert sport) but you’re scared of the environment. You probably aren’t alone. Make an LGBTQ+ (and affirming) team! It might take a while, but doing something together makes things less scary.

Work on your personal emotional regulation skills. This is can be extremely hard. But we aren’t taught as a society how to do it. You are going to feel better and be able to engage better if you get better at emotional regulation! Which isn’t just locking yourself away for three days, tho sometimes it is. It’s creating something, going outside, moving your body in a way that feels safe and accessible to you, writing your feelings in a journal, doing a task you know is easy and makes you feel accomplished, putting social media down for a few hours, regulating with friends, sometimes we just need to complain with someone else in private, sometimes it’s crying or walking away or taking a giant tarp and goodwill China and throwing it at the tarp so it breaks, it’s learning to recognize your feelings and where they are coming from, and asking for help. Knowing yourself and how to regulate will help with everything I mentioned above.

But most importantly, the best thing you can do is believe there is something you can do, and do it. The moment you are convinced that you can’t do anything is the moment you loose that power and control. You may need help to do it, or time, but you can do something!

*Don’t take money donations into your personal account before you go over tax information in your area! (Doesn’t mean don’t do it, just make sure you are being smart about it)

the way pwhl fans have made Britta Curl the scapegoat for the league will never not piss me off, not because I agree with her beliefs, but because by scapegoating one player and directing all your attention to loudly hating her you don't actually do anything real.

Also, aside from the fact that Britta Curl is not the only player with her beliefs in the league, I actually don't think yelling at the league to fire her is productive! I actually don't think a business should be allowed to discriminate against employees based on their political beliefs! I think that's a dangerous precedent to set, personally!

Like you don't have to spend your money in support of a franchise with players who are loud about politics you don't agree with. But saying they don't deserve to pay their bills and feed themselves is not exactly the most progressive take either.

I just want to also add a masterlist of resources for things you, pwhl blogger, can concretely do to combat transphobia in the PWHL!

Firstly, use this template/guide to email the league and the pwhpa to demand they develop, release, and implement the gender inclusion policy they still owe us.

Additionally, if you have the financial means, pledge to donate in Curl's name. I personally did $5 per point and $1 per PIM this past season, but you can choose whatever donation makes sense for you! Also, here are some places you can donate that advocate for LGBTQ people in hockey/detroit/both:

You Can Play

The Ruth Ellis Center (see @whitecherrylavender's reblog for more details)

The Detroit Chapter of Stonewall Sports (see @royaletigertowelpapertowelpp's reblog for more)

From u/pythagoreanpentagram on reddit: Stand With Trans and Transgender Michigan

You can also follow along with a Detroit fan-led effort to fundraise for trans nonprofits at puckcurl.com

✨ Fullmetal Alchemist Starter Pack ✨