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History
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We've got lots of stuff to tell, but apparently everyone's drunk at the bar ...still. So we'll tell more later...
 March 10, 1998
Cutting Edges are registered as a non-profit society in the province of British Columbia|
June 20, 2004
Cutting Edges win the 2004 Chelsea Challenge in New York City 2-1 over the NYC Orphans
August 5, 2006
Cutting Edges win double gold at the 2006 Montreal OutGames with a 1-0 overtime shootout win over the Toronto Demolition and a convincing 10-3 win over the Montreal Dragons
After the New York Gay Games, a core group of players realized they had so much fun playing on a gay hockey team, they wanted to keep the team together for regular competition. We managed to get involved as a gay team in an adult, recreational league at Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre at the University of B.C.
The idea behind the league is to provide, at as low a cost as possible, several different levels of play to accommodate adults learning for the first time, those who played as youngsters but haven't strapped on their skates in several years, and more advanced players.
Called the Duffers League, it has several divisions divided according to skill. Whether you're a novice, intermediate or advanced player, being on a Cutting Edges team means you're competing against players of roughly similar skill levels.
All divisions of the league prohibit body-checking and fighting. The emphasis is on recreational, fun hockey in a competitive environment. We're often asked what's it like playing hockey as out gay teams in a straight league. It's been much better than most of us initially imagined. When we first approached the league in 1994, it had already been going for a year and was looking to expand. Some of us had played a few games as individuals on some of the teams so we were at least recognizable faces to the league organizers.
When we first made our pitch for a gay team, they were taken aback. They just never imagined that they'd be dealing with out gay hockey players. But they said yes and all of a sudden, we were in.
As the start of the season approached, we were the ones who stated to get really nervous. How would the other teams treat a gay hockey team? Would it get really violent? Would there be lots of homophobic slurs and asides? Well, as it turned out, our imaginations were far more extreme than reality. With a few individual exceptions, we were treated like any other team. The referees were fair, the other players played hockey and we weren't forced to defend our homosexual honor in a bench-clearing donnybrook. True, we did lose more games than we won but at least we were there, playing hockey week after week. Perhaps things turned out so well because we looked so smart in our white and teal San Jose Sharks home jerseys and matching socks.
And when a few individual players clearly indicated they couldn't deal with competing against gay hockey players-either by excessive body-checking or homophobic slurs or both-the league acted quickly. Attacking someone on the grounds of their sexual orientation was equated with doing the same to someone because of their ethnicity or religion. The homophobic players were promptly kicked out of the league.
It's not as if sexual orientation isn't on the minds of players on the other teams in the league. The other teams do play a little harder when they know they're playing against the Gay Team. That's not surprising, really, given that they're just regular guys who have never knowingly played against a bunch of homosexuals in teal before. In 1997, one of our fans overheard the following comment by one of the other straight players in the bar at the rink during one of our games:
'When The Cutting Edges hug, they really mean it.'
It made us laugh because of its subtle homophobia and its plain deceit. Of course straight guys like to hug -- that's why they play hockey.
History is so last year.
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The following are trademarks or service marks of the Cutting Edges Gay Hockey Club and may be used only with permission of the Cutting Edges Gay Hockey Club or the relevant Cutting Edges Gay Hockey Club entity: Cutting Edges, Cutting Edges Hockey, CEH, the Cutting Edges logo, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Cutting Edges Gay Hockey Club and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.
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