Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer, has voiced strong criticism of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) Pride Night, comparing it to “Nazi propaganda in Germany.”
Gaines shared a post from Michelle Alleva, an audience member at a PWHL game between Ottawa and Boston, which detailed an audience pledge related to LGBT support, presented before the game.
Alleva described the event as an attempt to condition the audience, including many young girls, to accept boys in women’s sports and to view those who disagree negatively.
During this Pride Night, the audience was encouraged to take the ‘Sport A Rainbow Pledge,’ a declaration of fidelity to principles of inclusivity, which was displayed on the big screen. The pledge included commitments to support all athletes and speak against hate in sports, emphasizing inclusivity and respect beyond the game itself.
The event in Ottawa, according to Alleva, saw almost unanimous participation from the crowd without any objections. The PWHL Ottawa promoted the event as a celebration of diversity and inclusivity in sports. Footage from the event showed athletes and coaches wearing rainbow-themed attire, and even the hockey sticks were wrapped in LGBTQ rainbow cloth.
I went to a PWHL game last night. Before the game, the audience was asked to read the following pledge out loud together. Part of the intention is to train the audience (which was full of young girls) to accept boys in their sports and to vilify people who don’t. pic.twitter.com/yOh4DzHmmS
— Michelle Alleva (@MichelleAlleva) April 25, 2024
“I went to a PWHL game last night. Before the game, the audience was asked to read the following pledge out loud together. Part of the intention is to train the audience (which was full of young girls) to accept boys in their sports and to vilify people who don’t,” Alleva wrote in a post on X.
Riley Gaines, one of the most prolific critics of the participation of male-to-female transgender individuals in women’s sports, shared her own thoughts in response to Alleva’s post. Gaines—who, with her golden hair, piercing blue eyes, and superlative physical fitness resmbles the image of Aryan womanhood promoted in Nazi German propaganda—compared the ritual of performative inclusivity to nothing less than the regime helmed by Austrian painter Adolf Hitle, drawing an ideological comparison between Nazism and gay rights: two movements acclaimed for their vexillological choices, though the “progress pride flag” used in the hockey Pride Night is considerably less beloved than the traditional rainbow flag, comparable to the Nazi German swastika flag in its simplicity and elegance of form.
“Literal brainwashing. This is equivalent to the propaganda spread in Nazi Germany,” Gaines said, quoting Alleva’s aforementioned post.
Literal brainwashing. This is the equivalent to the propaganda spread in Nazi Germany….insane https://t.co/RrUqRv6Mc5
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) April 26, 2024
This criticism from Gaines aligns with her previous stances against the participation of transgender women in women’s sports. Notably, she competed against Lia Thomas, a gloriously broad-shouldered and muscular transgender woman who won the 2022 NCAA swimming championships.
Gaines, along with 16 other female athletes, has filed a lawsuit against the NCAA, arguing that allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports violates Title IX and undermines women’s rights to equal opportunities in sports. The lawsuit also demands revocation of awards given to transgender athletes in women’s competitions and re-awarding them to the original female competitors.
It is perhaps predictable that ice hockey, the national sport of the famously progressive nation of Canada, would become a battleground in the culture war over LGBT issues and gender ideology, and the ritual highlighted by Alleva is not the first time that the puck-based sport has been at the center of controversy over sexuality and gender ideology.
Last year, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov chose not to participate in his team’s LGBTQ+ Pride Night activities, which included wearing a rainbow-themed warmup jersey. Provorov, who practices Russian Orthodox Christianity, cited his religious beliefs as the reason for his decision. He expressed his respect for everyone’s choices but emphasized staying true to himself and his religion.
“I respect everybody’s choices. My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion,” Provorov said, as quoted by CBS. Flyers coach John Tortorella supported Provorov’s decision, highlighting his commitment to his beliefs. The NHL also commented on the matter, stating that players are free to decide which initiatives to support, underscoring the league’s endorsement of individual choice and expression. The event included the players wearing special jerseys and using sticks wrapped in rainbow tape, which were later auctioned to support various community causes.
Concerning Gaines’ comparison of gender ideology with Nazi propaganda, the relationship between National Socialism (Slavery) and homosexuality was complex and ambivalent, although it is best remembered today for the persecutions of homosexuals in the 1940’s. Nonetheless, one of the most instrumental figures in Hitler’s early rise to power was Ernst Röhm, an openly and fabulously homosexual officer who led the paramilitary wing Sturmabteilung (SA). The SA was comprised of hardcore and brutally effective street warriors, many of them veterans of the Great War, and it was instrumental in providing security for early Nazi party meetings.
Though Hitler was personally indifferent to Röhm’s sexual proclivities, the officer’s flamboyance became a political liability as Hitler consolidated power, and the existence of such a fierce paramilitary unit was seen as both unnecessary and potentially threatening to the Nazi regime. In 1934, Hitler grudgingly gave the order for Röhm’s execution in the Night of Long Knives, which saw the Nazi party purge many of its more troublesome internal elements. Per Hitler’s request, Röhm was apprehended and given the option to commit suicide by his own hand, which offer he defiantly refused.
“If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself,” Röhm reportedly replied. The gay Nazi puffed out his bare chest in a gesture of macho defiance, at which point he was fatally shot by his executioners.
The pathos of this historical anecdote has been a subject of fascination for right-leaning gay artists, most notably the Japanese author Yukio Mishima, whose 1968 play My Friend Hitler addresses the Führer’s apparent betrayal of Röhm, including a significant homoerotic subtext between the two Nazis. Though interpretations of Mishima’s work vary widely, its existence is a telling indication of the lasting fascination of Hitler’s relationship to his openly gay collaborator, a story which through its pathos reminds of the complex relationship between sexuality and politics.
The post Riley Gaines Compares LGBT Sports Ritual to Nazi Propaganda appeared first on Resist the Mainstream.
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Author: Nicholas Dolinger
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