Duggan: You Could Save Someone's Life Showing Public Allyship | FEATURE

This morning, the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players Association announced the launch of the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition, supporting the group with $1 million USD committed to programs that promote diversity in hockey. Devils Director of Player Development Meghan Duggan is a member of the coalition and we spoke exclusively with her about her participation and the impact the coalition is making in the sport of hockey.

Meghan Duggan knows how lucky she is. In the sports community members of the LGBTQ+ community don't often feel welcome, but for Duggan in hockey, she feels like "one of the lucky ones. It was a safe place, all growing up in in high school and college, it was never a place I really did feel excluded, and that's rare."

But with that luck comes a deep understanding and appreciation that it isn't the same experience for others. Most don't have an experience like Duggan, who is the Devils Director of Player Development, most have struggled to find acceptance, to feel like their sport is a safe place to be their authentic selves, to feel like they belong. That is why it was imperative she be involved in any sort of movement to help change the space around hockey, which has afforded her so much.

Duggan is part of the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition, officially launched Tuesday by the NHL and NHLPA. For the past three years, the group, made up of a range of people involved in the sport, including former Devils P.K. Subban and Mark Fraser, have been working behind the scenes to help advance equality in the sport, both on and off the ice. The group, then a smaller committee, came into existence after the senseless murder of George Floyd, as an opportunity to help the NHL as to "how they could lead and could have been better prepared to kind of activate around globally what was going on," Duggan shared.

"We met regularly as a group, and those early days, just kind of throwing out everything, getting to know each other, talking about our sport, incidents and things that were coming up," the 2018 Olympic Gold medal winner shared, "And there were three kind of focus areas that we've focused a lot of our work around."

"It was the education piece," she elaborated, "So wanting to be a group that educates the hockey community about diversity and inclusion and its importance. The other thing we wanted to do was expand leadership opportunities in hockey, to really reflect a wider range of representation, right, BIPOC community members, LGBTQ+, women, and the disabled population should start to be included in leadership spaces in hockey. And then the third thing was, we wanted to really increase pathways for authentic player-led community engagement activities."

Although Tuesday is the official launch of the Coalition, the group has already been working and engaging in the community for three years. Duggan sees this as a 'formal introduction' to both media and fans to demonstrate the work they've already done, open the dialogue further and amplify the support the coalition is being given from both the NHL and NHLPA to further their mission by allocating more than $1 million USD to support the programs created by the coalition. It's an exciting moment for Duggan and all those who have put their focus into the committee and the recommendations they have been providing the NHL with over the years.

"When I work on something, I always want to know, like, this has to be meaningful work if I'm putting this much time into it," Duggan said, "And so that is 100 percent the case with this group, and it's actually something that we've talked about a lot. I mean, anytime there's something like politically in the sports world, we are engaging in it, we are calling someone we want to know the information, how can we help. There are programs that we recommended that the players have to go through from an educational standpoint. And the NHL has designated $5 million in support those ideas and those programs because that's how important they are to the league and to the team."

Back in April, Duggan visited the Toronto Maple Leafs as part of her work with the Player Inclusion Coalition. There, she delivered a powerful speech about the necessity for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the NHL.

"The point of the work that we do, as a group, the point of speaking to the Maple Leafs, and then recording it, and putting it out was educating people, for them to understand what it's like to be in someone else's shoes, for them to understand why the league and teams host specialty nights and pride events and why it's important." Duggan shared, "And one of my big messages to the Leafs was, don't underestimate the value of your platform and in this day and age, specifically when it comes to LGBTQ+ community, it's a dangerous place to be for a lot of members of that community."

The video had more than 1.7 million views on Twitter alone.

"For someone of the stature of an NHL player, let alone one that plays in a market like Toronto, you could save someone's life by showing public allyship," Duggan added, "And that's really what I wanted to get across. And I think that really came across. And so, to me, that was a win. And if that made someone feel safe, or welcome in hockey, (that's) huge, and that was super important to me."

With the official launch, the committee now becomes and coalition and will be able to grow into something even bigger.

Some of those programs are already in effect and the funds will help with the creation of new ones as well, both in helping support education programs and events. Members of the coalition have already spent the past three years hosting an array of educational programs including a minor/pro hockey incident response session with Anson Carter, Georges Laraque and Jamal Mayers. Members have also hosted community hockey events to help empower under-represented groups in the game such as Cam Atkinson's meet-and-greet with local players who have faced slurs, and Madison Bowey and J.T. Brown's Zoom mentor sessions with an all-Black U18 tournament team. The list is extensive and will now only get longer.

"What you're saying to a group of people that are excluded in a lot of places in their life is you're welcome here," Duggan explained, "you're welcome to come to our rink and to engage in hockey and be a part of it, you're welcome here. And they don't hear that a lot, you know. And so that that's what it's about (…) it's saying to a group of people, we welcome you in this space."

For the 36-year-old seven-time World Champion and mom of two little kids, it's important to help shape a space where others will be just as lucky as she was in the game.

"It's a space and a sport and a place that I love," she said, "And I personally, just based on, you know, my experience and what I've been through and how I've been treated, I feel welcomed, and I've built my life around the sport. And so, for that not to be afforded to so many it is sad."

"There's a lot of people that have horror stories and are not welcome in hockey, and it's just too bad," Duggan continued, "And, you know, it's a sport that for a long time, it struggled with diversity and inclusion (…) the NHL, getting behind (the coalition) and saying, Yes, we believe in this stuff, they're putting a lot of money into this group to help us further our initiatives to host events, to deliver educational opportunities. And I think that's super important."

\\\* Please visit the official site of the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition which is now live!*

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