Brendan Burke, the 21-year-old son of Toronto Maple Leafs manager Brian Burke, died in a two-car accident in Indiana on February 5. Brendan Burke was a courageous young man. He was a pioneer to the sport of hockey by coming out and declaring his homosexuality. He was the first ever to come out in the macho manly sport of hockey and admit he was gay. There will be a day that makes history, when there will be an openly gay player in the National Hockey League, and it will all be traced back to Brendan Burke.
Brendan was twenty years old when he came out and announced to the world that he was gay, and the support came pouring in too. His family was by his side and so was the entire NHL. Brendan didn't want it to make it change the way people thought about him, he just wanted to know that he could live the way he wanted to and peacefully. "Brendan and his father looked forward to the day when a person's sexual orientation would not be worth a headline," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. "I do, too." Patrick Burke said that he hope someday if somebody does come out that they are gay that it is not for Brendan, but that they do it for themselves.
Brendan Burke will always be remembered not for being gay, but for what he stood for and accepting who he was.
No comments:
Post a Comment