Gayniacs: These queer Carolina Hurricanes fans dream of a Stanley Cup
As the Carolina Hurricanes continue their Stanley Cup charge, the team's new LGBTQ fans group the Carolina Gayniacs are pursuing a mission of their own.
Mark
Arianna Story was ecstatic to be at Lenovo Center to witness Game 2 of the NHL Eastern Conference finals, with the Carolina Hurricanes beating the Montreal Canadiens in overtime to record their first home playoff win since 2006.
The Canes won the Stanley Cup that year, for the first and so far only time in their history.
“Walking out into a crowd of people cheering, waving rally towels, all united around this team that’s a fixture of our community… that’s the kind of camaraderie I love about sports,” she tells Outsports.
That sense of community has deepened this season for Arianna, by way of a pioneering LGBTQ hockey fans and allies group named the “Carolina Gayniacs.”
Formed just a few months ago, the group is already storming towards wider renown, not just in Raleigh and across North Carolina, but around the world through its digital presence.
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From putting on packed weekend watch parties to engaging fellow Canes supporters further afield on Discord, the Gayniacs are zany to the max when it comes to their team and queer inclusion in the sport.
While the “Heated Rivalry” momentum has brought a flood of new fans into the NHL’s so-called “boy aquariums,” there hasn’t been much visibility and coverage of organized local groups of specific teams, and certainly not on the scale we see in soccer.
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That changed last weekend when ABC11 profiled the Gayniacs. The content elicited a deluge of reactions online, which Arianna, the group’s web editor, has spent a lot of time sifting through.
“Honestly, you learn pretty quickly which comments are worth engaging with and which aren’t,” she tells Outsports.
Anyone who’s ever been involved with an established LGBTQ fans group from its earliest days will likely recall having to justify their existence.
Arianna adds: “Someone typing ‘here we go’ under a news story isn’t looking for a conversation. They’ve already decided, and I bin those pretty quickly in my head.
“But buried in those same threads, there are usually a few people genuinely asking, ‘If you want inclusivity, why do you need your own group?’ That’s a fair thing to wonder, and it deserves a real answer rather than getting lumped in with the bad-faith stuff.
“I try to default to assuming the best. Most people aren’t hateful, they’re just unfamiliar — and without context, unfamiliar can sound a lot like hostility, especially when it’s surrounded by actual hostility and directed at a group that’s had to be a little defensive to survive.
“But if I treat every question as if it came from a bad place, I lose the people who are actually open to hearing us out. And those are the people we’re here for: fans and allies who hadn’t thought about any of this before.
“If I can get them to read a thoughtful reply, they might walk away with a slightly different picture of what we’re about. And maybe even join us — we genuinely want more people cheering together.”
Power of the Gayniacs produces uplifting vibe for LGBTQ fans
In a blog post on the Gayniacs website, Arianna wrote about the meaning of the word “affinity” and how that shared experience of cheering on and chatting about the Canes is by no means LGBTQ exclusive.
The door is wide open to anyone, so long as they’re not bringing disapproval and hate in with them.
Encouragingly, she says they’ve already had hundreds of people joining up, engaging and following, as well as exchanges with a few business owners who want to contribute. “It’s been really heartening,” she adds.
@canes The Loudest House in the NHL #canes #nhl #StanleyCup #playoffs #loud ♬ original sound – Carolina Hurricanes
The Gayniacs’ journey has begun at what is an interesting time for the NHL, between seasons of the “gay hockey show” that has created such an unprecedented buzz and amid several teams pulling back on talk of LGBTQ inclusion, Pride Nights and jerseys.
In some arenas, you might not even see a flash of Pride Tape all season long.
That’s why Arianna hopes LGBTQ fans of other teams will be taking inspiration and demonstrate the desire to create their own game-changing groups.
Thinking back on Game 2, she says: “I knew nothing about the folks beside me, and yet there we all were with a common purpose.
“If the Gayniacs can bring someone who might be hesitant about joining in, because of who they are, into that feeling, I’ll consider myself fulfilled.”
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