The Kalamazoo Wings, a hockey team out of Michigan, shut down a homophobic fan after he complained about the team putting rainbow colors on their logo to celebrate pride and support the LGBTQ+ community.
The Kalamazoo Wings are a mid-level professional hockey team who thought it would be nice to support the queer community by adding the colors to their logo.
They held a pride night on January 13th and in order to mark the occasion, the team replaced their logo on social media with one containing the colors of the Progress Pride flag.
The team also dyed their ice rink in rainbow colors.
\u201c\ud83c\udf08 History! Take \u270c\ufe0f\n\n#hockeyisforeveryone\u201d— Kalamazoo Wings (@Kalamazoo Wings) 1673374240
But as usual, someone had to ruin an otherwise lovely moment.
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Twitter user, Davey Todd, hopped onto social media to let the team know that he and his family would no longer be going to the games as long as the team was sporting the pride flag.
\u201c@KalamazooWings As long as you have this as your logo, You won't be seeing my family at any games.\n#CarefulWithYourMktng\u201d— Davey Todd (@Davey Todd) 1673506380
The Kalamazoo Wings responded with a peace sign emoji to simply indicate that he wouldn't be missed.
\u201c\u270c\ufe0f\u201d— Kalamazoo Wings (@Kalamazoo Wings) 1673552762
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This sparked a back and forth between Todd and the hockey team's Twitter account.
Todd responded by blaming the interaction on the "liberal" behind the team's social media presence.
\u201c@KalamazooWings Wow. A Liberal at the controls of Wings Twitter account is gonna send me off to be a Comet fan! Who the hell gave you this job anyway?\n\nInstead of drag queens reading 2 children, why don't we have farmers, veterans, firemen, police officers, and not worry what they do at night?\ud83e\udd14\u201d— Davey Todd (@Davey Todd) 1673506380
Not only did the team's social media person come for Todd with every response, but they also replied to almost every comment from new fans and critics alike—and we're here for it.
The outpouring of support for the team was amazing.
\u201c@sorokin_da_goat Live feed of you right now (we're guessing)\u201d— Kalamazoo Wings (@Kalamazoo Wings) 1673552762
\u201c@MSUDev0tee\u201d— Kalamazoo Wings (@Kalamazoo Wings) 1673552762
\u201c@KCS071114 On our way to get you from the airport \ud83d\udcaf\u201d— Kalamazoo Wings (@Kalamazoo Wings) 1673552762
\u201c@RandyScottESPN We'll save you a seat on the bandwagon!\u201d— Kalamazoo Wings (@Kalamazoo Wings) 1673552762
\u201c@ImSoLastSummer Seems like you've already found it in this comment section\u201d— Kalamazoo Wings (@Kalamazoo Wings) 1673552762
\u201c@SportWatcher2\u201d— Kalamazoo Wings (@Kalamazoo Wings) 1673552762
\u201c@PattyH8604 We've always got room for more!\u201d— Kalamazoo Wings (@Kalamazoo Wings) 1673552762
Others were straight up rude.
\u201c@Tlfd34 Been here almost a half-century and thriving!\u201d— Kalamazoo Wings (@Kalamazoo Wings) 1673374240
\u201c@KalamazooWings @bronsonhealth @1033WKFR @NHL @NHLNetwork Leave sports alone. Stop forcing this on us.\u201d— Kalamazoo Wings (@Kalamazoo Wings) 1673374240
In a world where people are still refusing to give others basic human respect for who they are, it's pretty cool that the Kalamazoo Wings took a stand.
Whoever runs the Wings' Twitter page, thank you!
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