#1 NHL
It's often said that it only takes one person to make a difference. In the case of the National Hockey League, it took two. In 2007, when a nineteen-year-old collegiate student manager for the Miami University Hockey Team came out to his father, the words he heard back were, "Of course, we still love you. This won't change a thing."
The nineteen-year-old was named Brendan Burke. And the father was tough-as-nails hockey legend and Toronto Maple Leafs' general manager Brian Burke. Brendan went on to come out publicly in 2009 in an article on ESPN's website.
And although Brendan's life would be tragically cut short just a little over a year later, his impact on the sport and the continuing drive of Brian Burke and his family would open hockey to being a more accepting place for gay icers, forever altering the perception that hockey would be a sport closed to gay men.
In 2007, the NHL became the first major league sport to allow a team's insignia to be used in a gay-themed film. The movie, about two gay men learning to care for a child coming into his own, was the Canadian comedy Breakfast with Scot and the insignia used was the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's also important to note that a number of NHL teams play in Canada where gay marriage has been legal for years now. No doubt a gay player there would probably find more acceptance than almost anywhere else.
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