Philadelphia Flyer Ivan Provorov Boycotts Pride Event, Ryan Field Books

Philadelphia Flyer Ivan Provorov Boycotts Pride Event

In all fairness, I have to admit that I have never been to a Pride event. I’ve seen them happening where I live, and it’s not that I don’t support them. Like many gay men who are out, I just never felt the need to go to one. And I think that’s partly because I only identify as a gay man and I’m not thrilled with what Pride has become.

And this has nothing at all to do with the LGBTQ community. From what I have seen in the past 20 years or so, straights have been taking over Pride events and profiting big time. In New Hope, PA, alone, I remember all the straight businesses hanging Pride and rainbow items outside their shops so they could exploit us to the fullest, and when Pride was over, all that Pride swag went back inside for another year.

So I think Pride has become something different, and I’m not always fond of the direction it’s going.

With that said, this move to boycott Pride by Ivan Provorov appears to be a blatant slap in the face to LGBTQ people. It looks as though it’s because of his Russian religion, but you have to look deeper. He didn’t have to announce it aloud. He could have slipped quietly away and disappeared and no one would have known. Let’s face it, a good many of us don’t know who he is, nor do we care. But he decided to make a point, and it’s loud and clear.

When I saw this trending the other day on Twitter I also saw so many homophobic comments it was hard to keep track. The homophobic straights were saying things like, “why do they have to shove Pride down our throats?” Or, “they want us all to be gay.” Well, that’s only the way it appears because the media creates this image. The truth is that we really don’t care whether or not you go to Pride, whether you support Pride, or whether or not some dumb hockey player decides to boycott Pride for his Russian religions reasons. We all know what Russia does to gay people anyway, and I guess this guy supports that, too. But in truth, we really don’t care what they think.

In fact, most gay men like me aren’t too thrilled with Pride events ourselves, but for very different reasons. Here’s where you can read the article. He really does come off as not too bright. There’s a photo of him with his big mouth half hanging open and you just have to wonder if he’s ever read a book from cover to cover.