“Hockey,” says Elliot Govaars, “has no gender. Hockey is the whole lot in my lifestyle proper now.” The 15-yr-old from San Jose, Calif., is a transgender boy and a member of the San Jose Junior Sharks hockey club. Last week, he became featured in a video produced via the NHL San Jose Sharks for their “Hockey is For Everyone” campaign. And this beyond the weekend, the group venerated Govaars and his Junior Sharks teammates and coaches by inviting them onto the ice before Sunday night’s recreation with the Calgary Flames. Govaars were given to drop the % on middle ice because of the NHL crew’s popularity of the Transgender Day of Visibility.
“The p.C. Drop turned into a first-rate experience!” said Marlena Govaars, Elliot’s supportive mom, in an electronic mail to Outsports. She and her husband have been on the ice for the p.C. Drop as well, and the group tweeted out the video with the #TransDayOfVisibility hashtag. She wrote that she’s “the crying redhead if you watch.” Unfortunately, the Flames beat the Sharks five-three to clinch the Pacific Division name and the primary seed in the West. But for the Junior Sharks, the night turned into nonetheless a once in an entire life enjoy made feasible via Govaars owning his reality and his coaches and teammates accepting him when he came out.
“Nothing changed,” says train Peter Smails. “So after they’re on the ice, they’re gamers, and we count on the exact equal issue from all and sundry: Respect the sport. Respect yourself. Respect your opponents. Respect your teammates. Work difficult. Have amusing.”
“Hockey has performed such an essential part in my existence for the past three years,” Govaars says within the video through the Sharks. It’s truly an outlet for all of my feelings. Nothing subjects on the ice. I can just be obtainable as a participant, playing the sport, instead of a boy, or a lady, or something.” When he came domestic with the enrollment form three years ago, Marlena Govaars says she turned unprepared for her infant’s transition to becoming a hockey participant. And about a yr later, she and Elliot’s stepdad had been even much less organized for Elliot to expose he became transgender. “‘We need to talk,’” Marlena Govaars recalled Elliot pronouncing. “‘I’m a boy.’ Okay. I was amazed, to mention the least.” “From that moment, matters advanced,” says stepdad Bob Wolff. “That was the unveiling of the darkness,” Wolff stated they sought the help of counselors to aid in Elliot and his own family’s transition. But the Govaars family is concerned that for Elliot to stay, his fact may cost him an area on the all-girls group. “Do we stay genuine to my son’s gender,” says Marlena Govaars, “or can we lose hockey?”
The answer becomes another marvel: the Junior Sharks said Elliot didn’t need to choose between the ice and his authenticity. “I think it’s a tremendous possibility to show what we can do for kids like Elliot, making this transition,” says girls hockey coordinator Amanda Long. “If popping out is a crucial aspect of helping him broaden as a person, there’s no negative,” says Coach Smails. “There’s no disadvantage to that.”
“He works simply as tough because of the rest folks. Yet, he still places on his jersey similar to all the relaxation people,” says Elliot’s buddy and teammate Bess Newton. “We’re all hockey human beings. Why have to gender be trouble in that?” “I can best hope each activist athlete who participates and speaks out understands how crucial this is for our LGBTQ+ young people,” Marlena Govaars informed Outsports in an e-mail. “[Transgender hockey player] Harrison Browne is in no small component accountable for my son to determine to live authentic to himself, and not feel like he has to ‘hide’ who he’s.”
