Original subtitles

How'd you meet her?

Oh, you know childhood friends that are hinge? One

Downloaded from YTS.BZ

Of the two?

Yeah, one of the two. Yeah,

- One of the two - Name?

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.BZ

Oh.

Let's keep that off.

Oh, Megan's said not allowed to.

There's no talking about girls in here. I'm tired.

Come on. It is bullshit. Oh no. We need to hear that stuff.

That was bullshit. - I'm tired of hearing about it.

Would you rather us talk about boys?

I can do that if you like?

Yeah, please.

I am not known as Luke Prokop, the hockey player.

I'm known as Luke Prokop, the gay hockey player.

It's always gonna follow me wherever I am.

And things have kind of settled down a

little bit, which is nice.

Where I can actually, you know, really focus on my hockey

and not so much the background noise.

When you're growing up,

that's when you become immersed in the culture of hockey.

That's where you learn the lingo.

That's where you learn the style.

That's where you learn what to say, what not to say.

That's where you learn how to act. I grew up in hockey.

I'm another hockey guy, you know what I mean?

There he is.

- Always on time, baby. - Never on time.

Let's go. Woo!

Always on time.

- Luke Prokob. - Luke Prokob. - Luke Prokob.

A historic monumental day

as the first player ever under contract has come

out as gay.

For the NHL, it's long overdue.

Luke was getting himself into the unknown.

Oh wow. He's really the first.

Finally somebody has done it.

I was high fiving people.

Where are the current players? They are out there.

Sometimes it takes one person to take a big step forward

so that other people can take little steps forward.

Scores. Luke Prokob!

My games in a really good spot.

Prokob, scores!

My whole goal was just to help one kid out there

and someone has to say, fuck it,

I'm gonna be the first person to come out.

I'm gonna show that it's okay to be

who you are and do what you love.

Nervous.

I'm trying to think. 1, 2, 3, 4. Five. Five.

So I came out, I was still playing for Calgary

and then I was traded to Edmonton after that season.

I tried to turn pro, I played a little bit in Norfolk,

Virginia, and then I left Pro Hoc.

He went back to Junior, played in Seattle.

Then I officially turned pro the year after.

Started in Milwaukee and then ended up in Atlanta.

Right now we're in Georgia,

playing for the Atlantic Gladiators.

My team in the East Coast Hockey League.

When I was going through the training camps,

I thought I was gonna play in the American League level.

I had a really good season previously. They sent me down.

I couldn't understand why you wanna play in the NHL,

but realistically you're two leagues

below the NHL right now.

You know, you sometimes you just need

to be patient. Hey mom.

- Hi. - Do you watch the game?

- Yeah, - I do. Yeah.

- Yeah. Tough one. - Yeah.

I thought you guys might've had it in

the bag right at the end though.

Yeah. I don't know.

I don't know why we just, we can't, like, there's some games

where we play like good

and we can't play like that for a whole game.

It's like we can play it that for 10 minutes or 20 minutes,

but we can put it all together for one.

My family is heavily involved in hockey.

My grandfather played, my dad played,

my older brother started before me.

So it was just kind of a family thing that all the,

all the boys played hockey, lots

of time spent on the outdoor rinks.

At the younger stages it's more just about, you know,

making sure you're getting, having fun

and, and that's what I was doing.

That's why I loved the game.

I think as a kid that's like the most fun it ever is.

Here we have Luke, the champion of pre novice.

Oh, right at the goalies face.

I think one of the best ways to describe Luke

as a child was his nickname,

which was the big friendly giant.

I mean, he was six feet tall when he was in like grade five.

And always just that like young boy

who had never heard a fly.

He was always so kind to everyone around him.

I think my sister's the loud one. Luke is pretty quiet,

Hes waving, say hello. He he.

He was just a, I think like he is today.

Like he's just very easygoing.

Nothing really seems to bother him that much

and he was probably the easiest of the three for sure.

I think the dream of the NHL was, I mean,

real early on watching hockey, growing up with my family,

going to Oiler games, just seeing it on TV

and wanting to be them.

There was a lot of push and motivation from my dad

to get me to where I am today.

It started from when I was seven years old

and I was getting pulled outta school early

to go to practice.

My dad would come pick me up at one o'clock every single

Tuesday and take me to the local rink to work with

a coach. At seven years old,

like, not a lot of people are doing that.

You know, if you're a hockey player, that's

what you aspire to, to want to be in the NHL one day.

He was just so natural.

He was such a natural skater.

Like it was sort of effortless for him.

I think the one game he had 10 or 11 goals

or something, right?

Hed just skate through everybody and

- Yeah, - You know, that's when

you could kind of sense that

The parents wanted to see his birth certificate, something

because they didn't believe how old he was.

And yeah. was some comments like that.

There was some comments like that.

Luke!

It just becomes part of your family lifestyle, right?

And you're in Edmonton, like you mean you play hockey.

The Edminton Oilers, the Stanley Cup

Champions of 1985.

Hockey players,

we're a fraternal group.

The way we commit to each other physically on the ice,

I think it really does create a special bond.

Boy, look at the mob scene down on the ice surface.

Gretzky has got it up high.

It's fools that are willing to lose teeth to win a game.

I would describe male hockey culture as one

that's super competitive

and one that glorifies

that prototypic, dominant brutality

and celebrates that.

Hockey's the last professional sport

with sanctioned fighting.

The language is terrible. I mean, I'd use the language

You cocksucker.

Come on!

I was growing up, I definitely heard homophobic language.

I used homophobic language, you wanted to fit in.

It's still this like,

super masculine,

pretend like you're big and tough culture in hockey,

and it takes really strong people to stand up to that,

because it's just so acceptable.

It is just not who I am. I don't love confrontation.

I don't, I don't love the idea of like harming someone,

but in hockey, in my role, I'm gonna have to be able

to tap into that and find it.

I think the main message that I've gotten working at such

varying levels of competitive men's ice hockey is

that there is a very narrow definition

of the socially acceptable competitive

men's ice hockey player.

And I think that definition becomes even more narrow

as you reach the NHL, for example.

There's a fear of drawing attention to yourself.

If there's four things you can talk about in men's team,

hockey locker room: women,

video games, partying and sports.

I asked a player one time

what would happen if you brought books into the locker room.

He's like, oh God, I would've been ripped apart.

And this stuff impacts the straight kids too.

If you can't conform to the culture, you might

as well be the fag.

'cause you're gonna be treated like the fag.

It's always number six.

'cause Shea Weber was my favourite player growing up.

14 was the, the age that I knew

I was a little different than, than all my teammates

In my own mind,

like, it was like, yeah, I know something's different,

but I'm gonna like just hold it back.

I'm gonna not think about it and not talk about it.

It was like you're living two different personalities.

You wanna play hockey, you wanna be

the best player you can be.

On the other hand, you wanna be yourself. At that age,

felt like it couldn't, couldn't be both.

I was probably too young

to even really think about if it would have an

impact on my hockey career.

Obviously I had to hide it.

When you go to the rink, especially as kids, as soon

as you get there, you get to the locker room

with all your friends, all your problems disappear.

They're in the moment, they're hanging out for an hour

and then they get on the ice

and everything disappears on the ice.

Yet for those queer kids,

now somebody's using a slur between whistles

or you're in a practice

and your coach makes you do something you don't want

to do, like skate.

And then everyone's like, oh, this is so gay.

A safe space for others is now an oppressive space.

We grow up in a culture where saying that stuff is okay

and it's not frowned upon, it's not looked at, it's not

addressed at all.

You didn't want to bring too much attention to it

because then that puts the attention on yourself.

'cause when you're 15, like standing up for stuff is cool.

Fitting in is cool

and that's what, you know, I kind of had to do to survive,

I guess.

My goal was to play in the NHL, not to be myself.

It was to hide myself and make the NHL and

however I could get there, I was gonna do it.

All kids, when they start hockey,

everybody thinks they're gonna go to the NHL,

but the reality of going to the NHL is a lot more difficult.

In Luke's case, the expectations have been very

realistic for him.

Prokob, score!

He has the skills, he's got the size,

he's got the agility. For someone

six foot five, he moves incredibly well.

What a gorgeous shot from Luke

Prokob in from the lines, top shelf...

Prokob shooting it scores!

He's got a great shot, a good knack of being eyes up,

looking up ice and making plays.

He's, he's really big. He's a right-handed shot,

which is hard to come by these days.

Goes to the blue line. Luke Prokob, a shot.

And then Prokob scores.

Luke Prokob has made this a one goal game,

and he leads and Edmonton celebrate.

He has everything he needs to move to the next level.

The Western Hockey League Champions

Seattle will hoist the HNL cup.

My goal would be,

it's not even news if a player comes out anymore,

that's the day I yearn for and probably won't see.

So we're getting there. It will get,

they'll get more comfortable with it and we'll get there.

I look at the progress we've made

since I got involved in this cause,

in that short time,

we've made massive progress. Massive.

Brian Burke, the general manager

of the Toronto Maple Leafs is with us.

Also With us tonight is Brendan Burke, Brian's son

When I was watching TV,

and there's this young guy being interviewed, Brendan Burke

and I wasn't really paying attention,

but then he said something that caught my attention.

He said, and I'm gay.

Two years ago, Brendan went to his family

and told him for the first time that he is gay.

And my head whipped around, stare at the TV in shock

and never heard somebody say they were gay in men's hockey

before, unless there was one player calling another player

gay on the ice or in the locker room.

And I said, wow. His dad's an NHL exec.

I think it's important that my story is told to people,

because there are a lot of gay athletes out there

and gay people working in pro sports that deserve to know

that there are safe environments where people are supportive

of you regardless of your sexual orientation.

Then Big Burke gets up there and pounds the table

and like Burke does in his brash fashion

and says, you know, we would be accepting of,

of a gay, you know, person.

Well, I said, it won't change anything Brendan.

You know, it doesn't change our view of we love you,

we're proud of you and it doesn't change anything in

my mind and never will.

They were ahead of their times.

That was really an epiphany for me.

He's obviously courageous.

I mean, it, it takes a lot of jam to take this step.

He's obviously a fearless kid, but he is a real bright kid

and a sweet kid and I'm very proud of him.

Courage and character. A couple of things you always look

for in your player as you have it in your son Brendan,

we really appreciate you sharing your story with us tonight.

Thank you James.

Well, I think what happens is you have that, that agent

for change, you have that lightning routes.

There's the GM of the Toronto May Police, his son is gay.

So I think that one event

with Brendan really galvanised a lot of change.

I remember Brent Sopel brought the Stanley Cup

and the Pride Parade in Chicago. God bless him.

Let's hear you cheer for the cup. Ah,

We're now joined by hockey players from

around the world supporting my son Brennan's

simple message. If you can play,

You can play.

- If you can play. - You can play.

If you can play. - You can play.

That first window of time when the teams really got

behind it, it was, it was amazing.

If you can play, you can play. That's the mandate

the Edmonton Oilers are adopting this Valentine's Day

during you can play night.

Part of the NH L's hockey is for everyone month.

This Rainbow Pride tape was used during their warmup.

It was created right here in Edmonton

and was recently adopted by the league.

We've made so much progress.

Every time a player comes out, an athlete comes out,

a family comes out, supports us.

We take those as major victories

and then I think just, we need some more firsts.

We need some more pioneers.

And being a pioneer can be a lonely job.

You know, when you, when you're growing up,

you don't hear about much about this league.

It's kind of frowned upon back home.

If you play in the, in the coast

Growing up it was, you know, where careers go to die

and this and that and just not a place you wanna play,

basically.

I think two weeks ago we lost six nothing.

And I was, I was minus five.

I didn't play well and I just broke down after the game

because I was like, I didn't know.

I didn't, I didn't know what was happening to me.

It's been three years since I got drafted.

There are guys younger than me

that are playing in the NHL right now.

You know, if I don't figure that out, I'm gonna get stuck

behind and not be able to make it.

No, cannot, you cannot do that.

Dude, you, you have to tell 'em, man,

Where did you get those?

Let's go.

There's a lot of guys.

Like I was, I've been on a couple teams, like

in this league already, it's not a good brag,

but in the coast, like, you know,

everyone's kind of in the same boat.

Like no one really wants to be here.

You know, we haven't been doing well,

like we've been losing a bunch.

The only reason that we keep going

to the rink is because the guys are good.

- Yeah. The guys. - And we enjoy being

around each other. - Yeah.

Pick up that.

No, you did pick up I saw you. - No I didn't. No I didn't.

Wow. Check the film.

We actually can check the film.

- I didnt know that one. - Out.

Fuck off.

Im looking toward the future

and his name is Luke Prokob.

He was the hitman's first round seventh overall draught pick

in last week's WHL Bannon draught.

When I was 16, 17, I was in Calgary playing junior hockey.

That's kind of when started having relationships and,

and things like that

and you know, how do you want to introduce someone

to your family when you're not out to them yet.

I couldn't continue on like that, you know, I couldn't

continue to, you know, wear a hoodie and,

hide myself from, from the rest of life.

It was hard for,

a lot of, there's a lot of long nights.

I was in my room

and I remember I just got a text saying like,

can I come up and talk to you?

And I was like, yeah, of course.

I went up and I sat down, I looked at her

and, there were just like,

nothing was coming outta my mouth.

It was just tears. It was, it was crying, crying, crying.

I just, I just finally, you know, came out

and I said it, you know, like I was Atlanta, like I'm gay.

I probably in less than three seconds I was just like

wrapped in her arms,

and we sat there and we had a good cry

and you know, she instilled in my brain that

it doesn't, it didn't matter, you know, that I was gay.

She loved me no matter what. I was still her brother.

and that nothing would ever change.

It's something I'll never forget.

Like, just to know that we had that relationship

that he felt like he could come to me first.

It was the probably the best experience I could've had

for the first person I told that I was gay.

Oh, look at him. Come on.

Just fall for one and not in the water.

Once you come out for the first time

and it goes well, you want

to tell the next person right away,

but you've expended so much mental energy

trying to come out to the first person that like,

you're just exhausted by the end of it.

That looks pretty good too. Right side there.

There was one night we went to this cabin

and he was like hanging out with this girl all night.

And honestly I like she was, I don't know,

I don't even know how to say it.

- She was all over me. - Yeah.

Like kind of that.

Luke didn't like kiss her or anything that night.

And I honestly like, it kind

of clicked in my head that night.

- Controls him to drink. - Oh no.

It's gotta go. - You know, Luke opening up to me

that let me open up to him about some things that

I probably would've never told him otherwise.

Right? So sometimes it takes one person

to take a big step forward so

that other people can take little steps forward.

Oh that looks like a dart.

Oh, I thought that was perfect.

Fuck.

I remember specifically,

I was terrified of coming out to my dad.

I love my dad. Very passionate man.

He loves me, he loves my family.

He expects a lot from us and is extremely hard on us.

We've never had a real great, like personal,

personal relationship.

It's, it's always How was practice? How was the gym?

How was your skate? Are you getting stronger?

Are you getting faster?

Dont get frustrated.

So it's all, it's like my relationship

with dad's all about hockey.

I was Luke's coach until he was, until he was 13.

And what was that dynamic like?

Oh, I mean, some nights it wasn't great, right?

Some of the car rides home weren't great,

but, you know, the kids are, the kids are different.

You know, Josh being older, I was probably more hard on him

because he would just react differently to it.

Right? And I, and then I would, I would,

regrettably I would kind of use the same tactic on Luke and,

and he wouldn't respond the same way Josh would.

I think Luke sometimes took the criticism maybe a little

bit, a little bit personally, right?

And, and not shut down

but just, just withdrew maybe a little bit more.

You know, how how could I feel good about going into

a game when I just got ripped by my dad, you know,

a few hours earlier.

The car rides, the not talking

for a few days wanting to have a sleepover with one

of my teammates after a game when I played bad.

Just so you know, he didn't feel comfortable

ripping me when there was, you know,

when my teammate was with me.

Yeah. I, those things have definitely

stuck with me for sure.

The story with my dad of how I came out

to him was a lot different than my sister and my mom.

He was always concerned about my dad

and so we kind of like came up with a little plan on

how we were gonna do that together

and when also was the right time for him.

I mean, that was the person I really

wanted it to go well with.

The person that has probably instilled the most in life in

me today as a person.

He told me first and he wasn't ready to tell his dad yet.

And it was hard too

'cause I couldn't talk to Al about it.

So it was really hard to -

She had to, you know, have these,

you know, she had this secret

she couldn't tell me. Right?

No. And I, yeah, it was, it was a secret.

I think it was September, this is now probably three

to four months since I told my sister.

I went to my best friend's house.

I asked her, I said, if, if things don't go well, like

with my dad, can I live here?

So that's kind of when the, the suicidal thoughts came.

'cause my family is, is the most important thing in my life.

And to think at that age to try

and continue on with life without them is,

and you know, not knowing if was a

great idea, if this was gonna be the best thing that happen

to me or the end.

Came home from work one day I was, she was like, you need

to tell dad, you need to tell dad.

I'm like, Alana, stop. I need to tell him on my own time.

And there was a little bit of silence

and then she said he knows

and she then told me that she wanted

to make it easier for me.

So that was two weeks that my dad had known.

When my sister told me that I freaked out.

I never really got to tell my dad on my own terms,

which is something i, I still kind

of regret too to this day.

So finally I met up for lunch with my dad

and I mean we just kind of had a discussion about

why I didn't feel comfortable telling him,

When you do learn of it,

you have all these different emotions,

and I think the biggest one that,

I think we both felt was that he had all this time

where he was dealing with it.

Right? So you go through this sadness for him being

I can, you know, tell anybody

He loves us so much.

So he was the one that took it the hardest

that I couldn't tell him.

I mean, you feel a whole bunch of different stuff,

but I mean, at no time do you ever

like lose sight that he's your son,

You know, he probably, you know, had these,

these feelings at 14, you know, now he's 18, right?

So four years of being alone.

- When he told you... - Stop for a second.

No? Let me go grab some tissues.

Everyone get ready for the picture.

If you look at most sports growing up

they're playing at school.

You're exposed to people of different races,

different interests, different genders.

Hockey, we take our kids, we put them in locker rooms with

20 people just like them.

Race, gender, presumed sexuality socioeconomics, et cetera.

And they're there six nights a week from the age of seven

or eight years old till they're 16, then they go off

and it's reinforced even more in junior.

It's a culture of machismo

and it is a culture that does not

interest itself in any form of diversity.

I think I was so used to being around it

that it really didn't affect me a whole tonne.

If I wanted to be myself at an earlier age, there's no way

that I would be still playing.

I still have nightmares about it, honestly,

like here and there like that.

I'll be back playing on that team.

I ended up playing AAA hockey.

You know, they were trying to breed like OHL Stars.

I was getting called faggot and gay

and got made fun of the way I dressed at the time

that the bullying was happening.

I was still like trying to figure it out.

So people calling me a faggot

or making fun of me for being gay, my instinct was like, no,

I'm not like, why are you saying this about me?

And then I'd have to like deepen my voice

or something to change it.

Like showers were a whole thing getting made

of the way your penis looks like not just me, like everyone.

Like it was a really cutthroat environment.

It was the assistant coach.

He actually would get included in on the jokes with the guys,

and would make fun of me for being gay.

He wasn't like a teenager, he was an adult in the room

with these kids, with them, seeing them shower,

seeing them naked, you know,

making all these jokes about body stuff.

I think if I saw him again, I would

tell him to go fuck himself.

Like I hate that guy.

And everyone loved him and it made me sick. It was so crazy.

Holy shit. He went that high? That's really cool

actually. He played his whole junior career in Washingtons,

gets to kind of stay in that area.

That's cool for him and his family.

How do you feel when you watch the draught happen?

I get jealous a hundred percent.

My draught was the first year I guess of COVID,

it was the first virtual draught they did.

I mean, I was just really hoping I didn't get

drafted during a commercial.

There's no guarantees, right?

You got 32 teams

and you need one team to, to like you. Yeah.

We decided to gather as a family of friends

and some Luke's coaches or special people in his life.

And so the thought comes across your head like

what happens if they don't call his name and we're all here.

And then they called his name out

and he always loved Nashville.

He always, he had a couple

of Nashville jerseys growing up,

so he was pretty excited

that it was Nashville that called his name that day.

It was like a dream come true.

Yeah.

The million dollar question for me constantly is like,

why isn't there a gay NHL player?

And you know, Luke now is under contract with an NHL,

which is such a great breakthrough.

Where are the current players?

We have gay players. Any statistician will tell you that

we have gay players in the NHL.

We have since the league opened

for business a hundred years ago.

What we don't have are out gay players.

The question is why are they not comfortable in this

environment, in the hockey environment?

I ended up having this phone call with George Larock

that had played in the NHL, the Canadians, the Oilers.

He said, you need to find out why it's not okay to be gay.

He said, you know, there are gay men in the NHL,

their teammates keep their secret.

They, they are out there.

And, and I know I've been privy to some brokering some deals

where an athlete NHL player's going to come out

and always at the last minute it falls through.

Oh.

I don't see, especially as there's no out alumni.

No, - That's, that's so disturbing. Like shocking to me.

I can't like wrap my brain around it

of being like an adult

and still being kind of ashamed of who you are

or not letting yourself be your true self.

I don't, I don't understand that.

I mean, I didn't think it should matter that I was gay.

I think, you know, if a gay player were to be in the NHL,

it's because of his hockey talent.

Luke called us for and says, you know, we need to talk.

So we'd had no idea what was going on.

- How's it going - Buddy.

How are you doing?

Good to see you. You too. How are things?

And yeah, Luke tells us, he says, I'm gay

and this is what I'm doing.

And we're like. I'm the only one that talked.

And I get a phone call from Jerry Johanson,

Luke's agent, right?

He goes, I have a player in the Western

League that wants to come out.

Can you connect with him? And I was like, what? Like really?

Like, and he's like, yeah, he's just,

you know, he's a signed prospect.

He wants to, I was like, whoa,

If things didn't go well with hockey,

I didn't really have a backup plan for that.

Hockey was my entire life.

I don't know what I would be doing if I wasn't playing.

I believe that an openly gay man should be able

to have an NHL career, but,

people dont like change.

There, there was no guarantee the, you know,

what the impact of this would be on his career.

I worried about his hockey.

I worried about he as a mum you worry

and I so you worry where is his life trajectory gonna go?

What's gonna happen? How is this all gonna work out?

there aren't teams out there that,

that wouldn't support a gay man in professional hockey.

So we had a, you know, we had that discussion, Hey,

do you really want to do this?

Knowing that it could affect ultimately how far you're able

to go in this game.

And he didn't care.

I'd be fine not playing hockey if, if it wasn't accepted.

Hockey's a game. I love hockey.

It's given me so much in life,

but there's no way I would jeopardise

my life for a game.

There's no way.

I think I sent the Instagram post

and Twitter post out at like 7:30.

And we did a good job with it.

Like, I didn't have any control of my social media.

Like, I logged out on my Instagram and my Twitter.

You let it fly, said you guys

Let it fly.

You guys deal with it.

My whole goal

outside of doing it for me personally was just

to help one kid out there

and someone has to do it.

You know what I mean?

Like someone has to take that step

and say, fuck it, I'm gonna be the first

person to, to come out.

I'm gonna take all of the shit that comes my way

and I'm gonna show that it it's okay to be

who you are and do what you love.

Hi everyone. While the past year

and a half has been crazy, it has also given me the chance

to find my true self.

Today I'm proud to publicly tell everyone that I'm gay.

I hope that in sharing who I am, I can help other people see

that gay people are welcome in the hockey community

as we work to make sure that hockey truly is for everyone.

I may be new to the community,

but I'm eager to learn about the strong

and resilient people who came before me

and pave the way so I could be more comfortable today.

This is just the beginning of my journey

and I'm excited to see

where it takes me both in hockey and in life.

Fuck. Finally, like finally

somebody has done it.

Like, holy smokes, thank God.

I think I read pretty much all the stories

that I could find at the time

and so I was just so impressed

And I said, the media's gonna take this and run with it.

Luke Prokob came out with an Instagram post.

He will be the first openly gay player in the NHL.

As the first player ever under contract has come

out as gay.

Luke Prokop of the Nashville Predators Organisation has

officially come out on social media.

Edmonton born Defensemen said he didn't know

how others were going to react.

On top of the world.

I was taken back by how positive it was

and that's,

that's all you want when you're coming out.

Yeah, Elton John called me.

That was sick, that was the morning after.

So I got a text message from Austin Matthews

that was really cool to see.

I couldn't believe what a different person he was

because he was struggling before.

Yeah. - So he would participate in more things

and just be more open to things.

Everything changed. So like the, the switch flipped.

What you think of that shoot man?

That was dope.

Yeah, - Like nothing, never done anything like that so

little definitely way out like my comfort zone.

But they made me feel like I was doing a good job

and said I was a natural and things like that

and got to wear some pretty cool fits.

- Yeah. - So it was dope.

There's a real difference between reacting to a gay player

and welcoming a gay player.

I think that the, the notion

that we're gonna create a a safe space,

no one's really done that.

You can have an out player, but it's what comes

after that announcement.

It's really the ecosystem that needs to take over.

When we knew that there was a potential trade to happen

and bring Luke in, like we had some conversations, like

anytime you go through an experience that no one has dealt

with before, you're gonna have questions like, oh,

are we gonna be able to room him

with different players on the road?

Or like, what if we had a player

that was extremely homophobic, like

how would we deal with that?

There's still hurdles

and burdens as there always will be,

but the players accepted him

and you know, I thought

his teammates did a tremendous job of

just letting him come to a place that felt normal.

It's the Edmonton Oil Kings by far

that made me feel the most comfortable

within an organisation.

When Luke came in, it was the captain at the time,

Jake Neighbours and our assistant captain that stood up

and were like, Luke is one of us, so if you have questions,

ask them now.

Otherwise we're not making a deal about this.

You know, this massive weight has lifted off

his shoulders.

He's, he's basically,

he's basically become like a different person,

like it translated into his hockey big time.

Able to create the turnover here for Edmonton.

Here comes Prokop and over the Raider line.

Luke Prokop shows off the hand-eye

I have the most goals I've ever scored.

I have the most points I've ever had.

I set a WHL record in the playoffs for plus minus.

Prokop scores.

What a gorgeous shot from Luke Prokop.

There were so many things statistically

that you can look at where it was like,

okay, what was the change?

And it was all coming up.

It wasn't extra skills, it wasn't extra workouts.

- Luke Prokop. - It wasn't better

sleep, it wasn't better nutrition.

It was me coming up.

The horn sounds, the wait is over the Edmonton Oil Kings

sit at their throne once again.

Their crown, the 2022 Western

Hockey League champions.

Oh, what a nice, oh, what a season. Oh, what a team.

The year couldn't have gotten better.

You know, I got traded to my hometown

team, they accepted me.

It was awesome. We won.

Everybody just wants to say that it's good.

And it's hasn't been, it hasn't been easy.

It hasn't been the worst thing ever,

but it hasn't been easy.

He got a lot of hate when he was playing

and he kind of, I think pushes it under the rug

because he doesn't want that to be the spotlight.

But it was there.

I think fans more so,

but opponents too, like I've, I've seen it.

There was a certain incident where there was a,

how do I say this in the nicest terms,

a cock sucking gesture towards me from

the other guy on the other team.

Our guys saw it

and went to absolutely bananas at the end of the game.

Went after the kid, our coach went to their coach

and was like, did you not just see this gesture they made?

And the coach was like, I didn't see it. Well you did.

I feel like it's glossed over really easily

how hard it's been for him

because he will not tell you that

Luke was 19 when he came out like that was too young

to take on the burden that he's taken on.

I mean, playing hockey in the southern United States like

that's, they've been very loud with their laws

and their decisions that they've made in, in certain states

that people like him aren't accepted.

There's been at times this season

where it feels like you, they just forget about you.

So feeling like the team that drafted you, signed you,

it doesn't believe in you anymore.

It's hard to continue to go out, play and try to please them.

Number 25,

What would Luke need to do to show he's

ready to play in the NHL?

Yeah, it's rounding out your game in terms

of defensive habits

and that's being engaged, being athletic, you know, you have

to be hard on guys defensively,

you expect that from a six foot five guy,

and probably, that's an area

where it doesn't come naturally to him.

It's just this innate ability to go

to a different place and be like, you're in my way,

get outta my way.

This wants to be your career and your livelihood.

Like let's kind of foster these habits and this attitude.

And it's always been the same thing

for the past five years ever since I got into junior.

You need to be more physical.

You're six foot five, you need to use your body more.

You know, like that's not my personality off,

outside of the rink at all.

And I have a hard time just kind

of flipping the switch when I get to the rink.

It's just who I am as a person.

Not to, not to want to do those things.

Penetrate their house. Let's get fucking inside tonight.

Lots of fucking shots, lots

of second thirds crash that fucking net.

Get some bodies there. If we're going low to high, it has

to be fucking low to high.

There's always an underlying feeling of like, you know,

why are these decisions being made?

Right? And, and we'll never know.

We will never know it

because no one will ever,

they're not gonna tell you if reasons are made based

on, you know, him being openly gay.

But I think it's,

I question it I think a lot more than he

does, which is good.

But, I wonder, you know, why he's in the situations

that he's in and if it will ever happen.

Why do you draught a player in the third round,

sign him within two months

and basically give him no opportunity

to develop within your system all coinciding

with when he came out.

So I mean, you guys can connect the dots.

Sometimes you wonder if it was

easier if I didn't come out.

I wanna put my whole focus on hockey.

And then you have to add on the fact of, you know,

do I feel like my teammates respect me?

Do I have to be careful around them?

Do I have to keep my mouth shut if I didn't, you know,

come out, I wouldn't have to worry about all

that extra stuff And I don't know, maybe,

maybe my life would be more where I want it to be

if I didn't in terms of hockey, I have to deal with all

that extra stuff because I want live the way I want to live.

I really believe that we were making steady progress.

There's been kind of a hard right turn on the right wing

fringes of America

and Canada where it's been pushed back against the

LGBTQ+ community, which I resent and fear greatly.

At least four NHL players have pride night this season.

The players cite their religious beliefs as reasons

for not donning the pride warmup jerseys.

We made such a stride with the NHL wearing pride jerseys,

having pride nights, all of this.

And then a handful of guys call it three or four came out

and said something and we pulled back

The NHL banned pride tape and specialty jerseys

after several players sparked controversy

for sitting out pride night activity.

Luke and I just walked out of an interview

and all of a sudden Elliot Friedman called me

and said, Hey Gary Beman just announced

that pride juries are now

banned 'cause they're a distraction.

That's just become more

of a distraction from really the essence of

what the purpose of these nights are.

And I'm like, oh, should we go retake this interview?

Probably have heard in the commissioner say yes

or the league would accept a gay player,

but there's always a but. But, we need

to respect everyone's views.

So your your goalie's from Russia, so you're dealing

with a Russian culture as part of your team.

I'm gay. Well, you're gonna have to deal

with a little gay culture as part of your team.

You know, the people at the very top have been in hockey

all along and they've grown within hockey culture.

And hockey culture has not been one

that's ever celebrated diversity or inclusivity.

Hockey is not a diverse sport sexually,

it's not a diverse sport racially it's not a diverse sport.

You know, like hockey is the only sport where you have

to divide up white people into categories where you're like,

no, no, no, he's Finnish and he's Swedish.

There's very little queer representation.

So people are making decisions without even talking

to us, without knowing the impact of any of this.

The NHL still has a lot of committed people in its office,

but even those people know that they don't, at the end

of the day call the shots.

It's the team owners. If you take an example

of the Jersey issue that there was 32 people around

that table who decided they knew what the impact would be

and they thought it would be minimal.

It's this cycle.

You're not exposed to any form of diversity.

How are you expected to change this?

We need seats at the table.

I can't necessarily speak my mind on a whole tonne

of things when you don't wanna talk badly about the people

that you work for.

Basically they own you.

The banning of pride tape, the banning of pride.

Jerseys, actions speak louder than words.

I don't have time to be patient anymore.

Maybe the onus is on me

and maybe I have to train hard in the summertime

and just work extremely hard to make them, you know,

not set me down.

The start of the summer

after everything that had happened with my previous season,

it was like a rock was put into my pocket.

That was the pressure from myself, my parents, friends,

coaches, agents, Nashville.

And I could feel it weighing me down.

I'm putting my body through hell right now

for Nashville just to say, fuck you going

down to the coast league.

As the summer got on, I got stronger mentally, physically,

and I was like, I know the rock's there,

but I don't care that it's there anymore.

I think I've grown so much as a person, I just kind

of want to go out and play hockey

and be the best version

of myself every day on and off the ice.

So this year I've probably got an extra month, month

and a half in the gym and I've ran my fastest benched my

most, squatted my most, so excited to see

what I can do on the ice.

And you know,

how good I'll feel when, when the season turns around.

This feels like the last hurrah for me.

If I don't have a good year,

then I might not make the NHL ever again.

I also know there's a lot of scouts here, so

I'm showing not just Nashville,

but I'm showing all those other scouts the side

that they've wanted to see for me since I was

16 years old and junior.

You know, you're playing against guys now

who have mortgages, kids, families,

and it's like, you're in my way.

I'm trying to provide for my family. This is my livelihood.

I'm fighting for this.

I am in a battle right now with three other guys

to make this team and I need to do something

to separate myself.

It is gonna be that ugly sort of defence in the trenches,

battles down low, net front play, like, these hard ugly jobs

where the game gets ugly, slow, gritty.

Anytime a coach sees a guy who's willing to commit to that,

it's like, we have something here.

You know?

And I was just like, fuck this.

Like, I need

to start doing this stuff if I'm gonna play pro.

Not to say I was looking for a fight,

but you know, I would've happily gotten in one today.

- Let go, let go, let go. - What?

I thought rookie camp went pretty well for me.

I had some feedback from the coaches and stuff like that.

They had noticed a big change in me right away.

I do. Like, I was just mad at nationals,

so it came out onto the ice.

He's had a couple cups of coffee I would say there,

as we say in the game, but we've had very strong teams too.

So he's come in at a time where there's steep competition.

So hopefully Luke can crack the Milwaukee squad this year

and you know,

hopefully continue his journey with the organisation.

We are in the first week

of the regular season in the American Hockey League.

I finally got my opportunity playing against Chicago.

seventh game of the year.

I was actually the third star

of the game when we were going off the ice

and they said that, I was like, no, you got that wrong.

But I did. I mean, I did play well.

Just excited to finally be in the spot that I've wanted

to be, to be playing in the league that I've wanted

to be playing in, the competition

I've wanted to be playing against.

All the hard work I put in the summer feels

like it's paid off.

The first American Hockey League goal for Luke Prokop.

Luke Prokop gets his first a AHL goal at

18:28 of the first period

to give Milwaukee a two nothing lead.

Bound by a job to go to the rink every day

and work my bag off

and make it so that there's not even a question

to take me out of the lineup.

Okay guys, hello right here.

Mayor of Milwaukee, Cavalier Johnson has

Declared and proclaim that Wednesday, January 29th, 2025

to be Luke Prokob day City of Milwaukee.

- Wow. - Holy shit.

The man of the hour.

It's really nice to, to meet y'all and,

and know that I, you know, have some people in my

corner that are rooting for me.

So, I really appreciate it. Thank you.

I hope that this is a point in the history of the game

where the people that make institutional decisions

are electing to think about this in a more serious way

of like, look how much more you could have.

- Awesome, thank you. - Nice to meet you.

Leagues that dont start to listen to that.

They're gonna find themselves in an echo chamber

that at some point isn't gonna sell out stadiums anymore.

Course.

Okay. Maybe not a personal question.

No, I'm not dating anyone right now.

It'd be nice to, you know, share this space with someone

or start, you know, actually dating someone,

but I'm not gonna rush into anything,

or you know, be with the wrong person.

We're gonna, you know, wait for that person to come.

I haven't played a game since beginning of April.

I've been having these episodes.

Whenever I exercise,

my heart rate will get really, really fast.

It actually happened during a game against Rockford early

March, and I got pulled from the game.

The diagnosis is called Ectopic Atrial Tachycardia.

So it's tomorrow morning, I'm getting

a procedure done on my heart.

This surgery's basically kinda

officially ending my season.

Just gonna pause Your favourite colour.

Oh, good one mom.

What'd you wish for?

Everything goes well tomorrow. Hopefully.

The future of my time with Nashville is

still up in the air.

I still could be here next year if they wanna sign me.

I don't think they will.

I don't know if I've done enough

to prove myself to other teams.

I only have 40 games of a AHL experience,

my entry level contract.

Is that enough? Did I do enough

to earn myself another contract?

- Doing okay? - Yeah. - You have any pain?

I have no idea what next season looks like for me.

Where I'm gonna be, if I'm gonna get a contract?

If I don't, I might have to go over to Europe.

It feels great to be home for the summer.

And I've only been out for three years,

so, I don't know a whole tonne of the history, you know,

but within my community and the province and the city.

1992 King's College fired Delwin Vriend

solely for being gay.

It was a policy of King's College.

If you were gay, you can't be a teacher.

At that time,

the Individual Rights Protection Act did not include the

word sexual orientation.

So, we went to Court of Queen's bench in 1996.

The lead judge, you know what this guy did?

He was so homophobic,

and so outraged that we were even in his courtroom.

He turned his chair around.

Seven years in the making,

we finally get to the Supreme Court

of Canada.

We won.

And now the Supreme Court decision in the Vriend case is

used in law courts around the world

to bring sexual orientation into their legislation.

And let's be clear, this fight will never end.

And that's why I'm really proud that Luke is here

with us today, because this has to continue.

Discrimination hinders coming out, coming out hinders

discrimination.

All the stuff that they had to go through

to get our rights in this city

and in this province was, was something really cool.

And, you know, Pride was a protest. That's what it was.

And, and they were protesting

for our rights basically in this province only,

you know, 25 years ago.

I think I've learned a lot about myself.

You know, with hockey, these decisions are probably gonna

seem super tiny and super small in five years.

Life's gonna be okay.

I think it's just time for me to get a fresh start.

That's what I'm hoping is gonna happen this summer.

The Edmonton Oilers have signed Luke Prokop

to their organisation.

He'll play for their a AHL affiliate,

the Bakersfield Condors starting this month.

Obviously super happy to sign with my hometown team.

It's it's in the basement at home.

It's been kind of a breath

of fresh air just being in a new organisation,

which is, you know what I wanted.

Prokop worked it up the board.

Training camp was really cool,

seeing Will Mc David on the ice

and he came out to, he's like, hi, my name's Connor.

And I'm like, I know who you fucking are.

I was able to showcase myself in a way where like, okay,

this kid belongs and he's an actual prospect.

Prokop, shot, and it scores!

Prokop for the point, score.

It's feeling like I was, when I was back in junior,

just playing carefree

and truly feeling like

that these people in the organisation believe in me.

I've been really happy with how I've playing,

and the Stan Bowman is like, yeah,

well you look like a real integral

piece for us for the future.

I think we've played 15 games, I've played 14 of them.

It's everything that I thought it would be just

with a fresh set of eyes and a new opportunity.

Heated rivalry going to number one is

so incredible.

The story we're telling in heated rivalry

is a distinct fantasy and it is there to be joyful.

It shows men being vulnerable and it humanises people.

The queer community, they finally feel like they have a

seat at the hockey table of conversation.

It's a reminder that, like, hockey has the potential

to appeal to everybody.

But I do hope that they hear the rallying cry

of these new fans

and these people who want to be fans who have been asking

for change in this culture.

They're making themselves so heard that I think the rest

of society is having no choice

but to pay attention to what they're doing.

And I think it's beautiful.

Luke is a big tough hockey player and he goes out there

and he hits in the corner and he,

and he stands up for his teammates.

And so him being also gay,

it's like melding worlds together for people to see.

He's existing in a space

that doesn't have people like him.

So just his existence matters.

Just his existence will get people to critically think about

what they do and what they say.

There's lots of guys that learned that it wasn't a thing,

that he's just a regular teammate.

They learned so much from being with Luke

that they can now take to other teams.

Lets go. Woo! Always on time.

My coach in Bakersfield won't ever say

girlfriend or wife anymore.

He'll only say partner. You know, there's guys on my teams

that are asking questions if I have a boyfriend

and what was it like to come out?

So it's like throwing a stone into a pond,

the ripples spread.

Yeah, there's a lot of things

to be grateful for in my life right now.

I have a boyfriend, first time I've ever said

that on camera.

First time that like, I'll even like say it to my parents

and stuff, which is cool,

but also terrifying at the same time.

With my dad this year we're off

to a little bit of a better start.

You know, if I have a bad game

and we're able to kind of go back to normal,

Why very much fisticuff served hitting or anything?

I kind of like that when I gotten that scrum.

From my perspective, all of us are probably

at some point living our childhood again

through our sons.

There's so many things that I'd do different.

I mean, they didn't play it to become a NHL player.

They played it 'cause it was fun.

If hockey is done right, if it is inclusive,

if it is accessible, it has incredible benefits.

Here we have Luke, the champion of Pre-novice.

You know, accolades are amazing.

Winning championships are amazing,

but people forget all about that.

They remember the people that made a lasting

impact on the game.

If it worked out from a hockey perspective, great.

If it didn't, you know, he's kind

of feel like he's did his job.

Coming out I've been able to connect with kids

who are kind of in the same spot that I was

and being able

to help them along their journey has been amazing.

It didn't matter to him at the end of the day,

whether he gotta play one NHL game or not.

It was more important for him to help people

and throw this huge weight off his shoulders

and be able to move forward.

If one kid watches this and says,

yeah, I'm having those same fears and anxiety,

but Luke's done it, Luke's helping to say

that it can be okay.

My main goal with this whole documentary is for it

to reach kids like me.

If I could help one person, I feel like I've done my job.

I know that he truly feels like he's making a positive

impact on others and in his own life and,

and you are just proud of him.