NHL Team Cancels Pride Night, So Fans Decide to Host One Anyway

The Dallas Stars may have tried to put their Pride Night plans on ice, but fans won’t let it happen. Tori Copeland, a longtime Dallas Stars fan who has long attended the team’s annual Pride Night celebrations, has decided to address the lack of an LGBTQ-themed night on the ice hockey team’s 2026-27 schedule by planning her own for other queer and trans fans. The Dallas Stars released its 2026-2027 promotional schedule on Friday; the roster of games included theme nights such as ’80s Night, Star Wars Night, Anime Night, Black History Night, Noche Mexicana, and Military Appreciation Night. However, Copeland, as well as other fans, noticed that the teams’ Pride Night was missing for the first time in five years — an omission she told the Houston-based outlet Chron was “super disappointing.” In its place, per the Dallas Morning News, was a night dedicated to celebrating women in sports called “Hockey Unites Us: Women in Sports Night” during its March 23, 2027 game against the Carolina Hurricanes. In past years, such as the team’s 2025 Pride Night celebration, which took place on March 4 during a game against the New Jersey Devils, the event raised funds for Resource Center, North Texas’s largest LGBTQ+ organization. Instead, on a separate night this season — January 12, 2027 — the team will celebrate the romantasy novel Iron Flame, the second book in the Empyrean book series, at a face-off against the Ottawa Senators, with proceeds going to the Trevor Project, per Chron. “The new Hockey Unites Night allows our organization to use our platform to celebrate and support a different underrepresented community each season,” Stars spokesperson Joe Calvillo told the Morning News in a statement. When the Morning News asked them why the team chose not to have a Pride Night for the first time in five years, the Stars declined to comment. “It just feels really icky and targeted,” Copeland told Chron in regards to putting LGBTQ+ nights and women?