Still a hockey fan but just canceled my Minnesota Frost season tickets
ETA, I'll add screenshots to the comments of the initial response from the league rep and the email where she confirmed the zoom call. I did not get the name of the woman who spoke to me at the game. I also forgot to start recording the zoom call, I had thought I had it set to say a transcript but since I wasn't the host of the call it didn't work like I expected.
I wanted to share my experience from the last regular season Frost game of the season.
This is going to be a long one. Here is the TLDR, my family has canceled our Minnesota Frost Season tickets and we do not plan to attend games going forward.
Before the fan appreciation game on April 19th I made keychains for each player. I did not want to make one for Curl (TLDR, she's a transphobe) but I felt it would be rude to leave her out. My compromise was to write a simple fact on the back of her keychain: “Trans women are women”. I brought the keychains to the game and handed them to Lee Stecklein as she went back to the locker room. Stecklein took them and said thank you.
Right before puck drop, a woman came to our seats and told me to come with her to the top of the section. I hesitated, and the woman said I would be able to come right back to my seat and that no one needed to go with me. When we got to the top of the section the woman proceeded to lecture me for over 5 minutes. She started by saying this was about the keychains, she told me all the “girls” would have loved those keychains but none of them are going to get them. She asked if I knew why. I said, “No.” The woman said something along the lines of, “That’s an answer, that’s why I asked.” She said it was because of what I wrote. The woman said she wished I would do some research on Britta because she does so much for the community. She repeated some variant of that phrase multiple times. The woman also said several times how much all the “girls” would have loved the keychains but none of them would get them because of what I wrote. She eventually changed this statement to “now none of them want them because of what you wrote”. She told me something along the lines of “the captain was upset” or the captain had sent her.
The woman went on to say, “We know you’re a fan, look at the way you’re dressed.” She also said she knew I was a season ticket holder and where I sat. She told me that “Michela loves Britta” referring to my custom Frost jersey with Michela Cava’s name and number.
She said that what I wrote was derogatory. I responded by asking her to clarify that “Trans women are women” is what she felt was derogatory. The woman said, “Yes.” I replied, “Interesting.” I must assume this is the official opinion of the PWHL and the Frost, since this person was speaking as a representative of the league.
After the game my family sent all of this information and more to our season ticket rep, the Frost, the PWHL and Grand Casino Arena. A PR person from the PWHL replied and asked if we would be willing to speak with her. My mom and I agreed to speak with and arranged a video call for 5/4.
The woman from the PWHL started the call by saying she's sorry we had that experience and that they would refund our tickets from that game as a gesture to show that they take this seriously. We asked if she specifically worked for the Frost or the league. She said the league and the PWHL is all one organization so she speaks for all of the teams. She told us she had not talked with anyone from the Frost. We told her that based on what the woman at the game had said to me, she spoke for the players and they did not want us there. She said she was sorry we felt that way and she asked something like if there was anything else. We said we weren't sure if the league had any interest in trying to keep us as fans but if they were it would take a personal apology from the team. We would need to hear from the team that the woman at the game did not accurately represent the opinions of the players and that Trans folks are truly welcomed in the PWHL (as fans, players, staff, etc.). She didn't really have much of a response. Throughout the whole conversation she never said anything of substance, just a lot of "sorry you feel that way."
As a native Minnesotan, a lifelong hockey fan, and a woman, I cannot overstate how meaningful it has been to support the Frost, and the decision to end that support has been extremely difficult for me and my family. However, with the continuing harassment and mistreatment of many fans by arena security, the policy of silencing fans who speak out against the ICE occupation in Minnesota, and the abject failure of the PWHL to express real support for the communities it claims to uplift, my experience is a singular incident in a pattern of behavior that I will not be associated with.