The National Hockey League caved Friday night after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called out the league out for planning a “discriminatory” job fair limited to certain genders and ethnicities.
“Participants must be 18 years of age or older, based in the U.S., and identify as female, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and/or a person with a disability,” read the now-deleted LinkedIn post for NHL’s “Pathway to Hockey Summit” event.
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The governor’s team swiftly responded to the post on the event planned on Feb. 2 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“We are fighting all discrimination in our schools and our workplaces, and we will fight it in publicly accessible places of meeting or activity,” DeSantis’s office responded in a statement. “We call upon the National Hockey League to immediately remove and denounce the discriminatory prohibitions it has imposed on attendance to the 2023 ‘Pathway to Hockey’ summit.”
“NHL: You are officially on notice about your planned events in Florida. Unlawful discrimination will not be tolerated,” wrote Christina Pushaw, DeSantis’s campaign spokeswoman.
The post for the Ft. Lauderdale event was reportedly deleted Friday night, and the league clarified that the event is open to anyone ages 18 or older.
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DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin responded to the news of the NHL backtrack. “Florida is where woke goes to die,” he wrote on Twitter, repeating a favorite phrase of the Florida governor.
The “Pathway to Hockey Summit” event is intended to be a networking opportunity for people interested in careers in hockey, and numerous hockey teams are planning to send representatives to the Florida event.
