this one was by commission, so I can't! :}

there are people doing real work to try to unfuck the culture, and I really hope they succeed, and it's a hella fun game, but man yeah

wariness 100% warranted, for several reasons

and, ha, hockey culture is like 50% the dim but harmless bros from Letterkenny and 50% a shrieking morass of boundless, insensate racism and queermisia

I hope it's gotten better since I played (but in my heart I know it largely hasn't)

the policing got *much* more intense when I got into athletics at the high school level! I was deeply unprepared for that dynamic.

(...admittedly I did get my head cracked with a softball bat by a homophobe a couple years later, but that was a different crowd and a different social context)

one of the constant taunts when I was an early teen in public school in Chicago was "wow does your MAMA know you're gay?" and I remember snapping back one day "yeah, she's very supportive" and it just stopping dead at that point

And the babes together!

deleting to not seed it further.

my mistake, I looked it up but clearly got misinformation and should've looked deeper.