Duggan, Devils Fight for Acceptance for All | FEATURE

Roughly a year-and-a-half ago, the Devils Director of Player Development Meghan Duggan stood in front of the entire Toronto Maples Leafs team, including then head coach Sheldon Keefe, in the club’s meeting room. She had a request.

“Everyone in the room, staff included, raise your hand in you’ve ever played in a professional hockey game.”

The vast majority of the room raised a hand, including Duggan.

“Raise your hand if you’ve ever played in international competition representing your country,” she continued.

Again, much of the room raised a hand, including Duggan.

And so on.

“Raise your hand if you’re married.” Hands raised, including Duggan.

“Raise your hand if you have kids.” Hands raised, including Duggan.

“Raise your hand if you’ve ever had to stand in front of someone and justify your right to be married.”

No one raised a hand. Except for Duggan.

“Raise your hand if you’ve ever had to fight to be recognized as a parent of your own children.”

No one raised a hand. Except for Duggan.

“It’s difficult to understand inclusion if you’ve never been excluded,” she poignantly remarked.

Duggan is a very accomplished professional in her field. She’s a decorated athlete that has competed at the highest levels of hockey, from college to the professional ranks, from IIHF Women’s World Championships to the Olympics.

She won an Olympic gold medal (2018) and two Olympic silver medals (2010, ’14). She won seven gold medals and one silver in World Championship play. Duggan won three national titles with the University of Wisconsin, and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame, and claimed two Clarkson Cup titles in 2013 and ’15 with the Boston Blades of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League.

But her biggest battle, has been for acceptance. Acceptance as a woman in a male-dominated NHL world. Acceptance as a gay woman, married to fellow hockey Olympian Gillian Apps. Acceptance as a gay parent to three young children.

“For me personally, as I figured out who I was and my sexual orientation, hockey always was a safe space for me, which I appreciated,” Duggan told the Devils official website in an exclusive interview. “I was always welcomed by teammates and in the locker room. But I still think we struggle in the game in that area.

“When you fast forward to now and the pinnacle of professional hockey in North America, the National Hockey League, celebrating and welcoming the LGBT+ community to their games with different events, growing the game within those communities. It’s big. I think we have a long way to go, but certainly I know a lot more people that feel welcomed in hockey now than they used to.”

The Devils are among those NHL teams welcoming in diverse communities to their games. On Tuesday, when the Devils host the same Toronto Maple Leafs mentioned above, the club will be holding its Pride Night celebration.

“When you look at the way the Devils organization celebrates diversity in general, the way they’ve welcomed in my personal experience, myself as a gay woman, welcomed my family into the fold … I’ve felt that,” said Duggan, who joined the Devils organization in player development in 2021. “That’s a group that I want to align myself with and want to be a part of.”

Of all her battles, perhaps her fight for acceptance for all diverse peoples in all ranks of hockey is her greatest.

“We still have a long way to go in hockey, not just in the National Hockey League level, but all the way down to grassroots, of enforcement of penalties when there are derogatory things that happen in locker rooms or on the ice,” she said. “The NHL is starting to take a stand and be a leader in that respect. We need to see the trickle-down effect a little bit more.”

In fact, Duggan is part of a group that the NHL and NHLPA put together to help in that regard. She’s a member of the NHL NHLPA Player Inclusion Coalition. Its goal is to make everyone feel welcomed and safe.

“What you’re saying to a group of people that are excluded in a lot of places in their life is that you’re welcome here,” Duggan said on the coalition’s launch day in the summer of 2023. “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. It’s saying to a group of people, we welcome you in this space.”

Duggan, who was recently named as a special consultant to hockey operations for the PWHL, wasn’t always welcomed in some hockey spaces. But she’s earned her right to be here not based on her identity, but on her ability. And because of that, she is a trailblazer for many to come.

“Being a woman, being a member of the LGBT+ community, people say, ‘you’re paving the way and it’s so exciting, it’s in the news.’ It certainly is,” Duggan said. “But I look forward to the day when it’s not news, and I think we all do. But I would certainly be remiss not to appreciate and understand how important the representation is.

“I want young girls or young members of the LGBT+ community to look up and say ‘I can do that. I want to work in hockey operations. I want to work for an NHL club.’ It’s a safe place for me. I don’t have to feel like I’m not welcome there. If that’s how I can make someone feel, that’s a really important thing.”

Duggan will continue the noble fight, but she isn’t alone. She’s got an army behind her.

“There are a lot of people in the League and at the New Jersey Devils and in the grassroots that are working on making hockey a safe space. We’re just not there yet,” she said. “More people being educated about how that has no place in our sport and more people being willing to stand up and eradicate it in our sport. I think we’re trending in that direction.”