Sports
National Women’s Hockey League player goes out in style
Buffalo Beauts player ends career with a high note; plans move to Chicago
Harrison Browne with the National Women’s Hockey League’s Isobel Cup. (Photo courtesy the league)
Roughly two months later, the league announced its policy on participation of transgender athletes which includes eligibility guidelines to ensure a fair and level playing field for all players.
While Browne had begun his transition socially, the medical transition would have to wait while he was under contract with the league.
Browne’s career started at 9 years old in Oakville, Ontario through a childhood friend who was part of a hockey family. He would go on to represent Team Canada in 2011 and start his collegiate career at Mercyhurst before transferring to the University of Maine for his remaining college eligibility. He signed on as left wing with the league team, the Buffalo Beauts, in 2015.
Two weeks ago, at age 23, Harrison Browne announced that he would retire from professional hockey at the end of this season.
The Washington Blade caught up with Browne on the eve of last Sunday’s league championships in which the Buffalo Beauts took on the Boston Pride.The night following the interview, the Buffalo Beauts knocked off the heavily favored Boston Pride, 3-2, to win the National Women’s Hockey League’s Isobel Cup. Browne can add champion to his list of accomplishments.
WASHINGTON BLADE: What emotions are you feeling heading into your final game as a professional hockey player?
HARRISON BROWNE: It hasn’t really hit me yet. I am just focused on playing my best game. It was great beating New York to make it to the championships and we have some unfinished business with Boston as we lost to them in the championship game last year. I’m sure the emotions will set in when that final buzzer goes off.
BLADE: Last month was the league All-Star Game in which players were selected through a fantasy draft and then over 20,000 votes were cast by fans to select four more players which included yourself. What did that mean to you?
BROWNE: That was huge. I scored two goals in the game with one on Brianne McLaughlin, the goaltender from my team. She hugged me afterwards. The support that has come from my teammates, the coaches, the league and the fans has been incredible. I had the third highest selling jersey this season and the response from social media has been mostly positive. I have had so many people tell me that I am brave and that I have helped them in their own lives.
BLADE: Were you happy with your stats on the ice this season?
BROWNE: This season was the first time I felt comfortable both on and off the ice. My stats were good but they didn’t really stand out because the League has gotten a lot deeper. The NWHL was stacked this year.
BLADE: Is your medical transition the main reason for your retirement from professional hockey?
BROWNE: When I signed in 2015 I always I figured I would play for two or three years, so transitioning wasn’t a factor in my decision. I was just living the dream of being a professional athlete for a few years after college. I don’t make enough money to justify staying any longer.
BLADE: You mentioned that you were comfortable for the first time this past year. How did that help set you up for your future?
BROWNE: I have been living in a “gender bubble” this past year and it has been both a blessing and a curse. People have tried to use the correct pronoun and I have been given a taste of what it is like to be gendered properly. I don’t know what to expect going forward.
BLADE: What are your next steps?
BROWNE: My lease is up on my apartment in Buffalo in April and I will be looking for work in Chicago which is where my girlfriend lives. My degree is in international business management but I would like to work in sports in some capacity. There will also be hormone therapy and surgery coming soon. I have been cruising on autopilot and postponing this for many years and I am ready to move forward with my true self.
Sports
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry strike a pose in memorable Olympics performance
Madonna’s presence is being felt at the Olympic Games in Italy.
Guillaume Cizeron and his rhythm ice dancing partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France performed a flawless skate to Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Rescue Me” on Monday.
The duo scored an impressive 90.18 for their effort, the best score of the night.
“We’ve been working hard the whole season to get over 90, so it was nice to see the score on the screen,” Fournier Beaudry told Olympics.com. “But first of all, just coming out off the ice, we were very happy about what we delivered and the pleasure we had out there. With the energy of the crowd, it was really amazing.”
Watch the routine on YouTube here.
Italy
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics’ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph Naklé.
Naklé in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italy’s only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italy’s Veneto region.)
Naklé said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is “actually our main objective.”
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the country’s nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations “in order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.”
• Marriage equality for same-sex couples
• Depathologization of trans identities
• Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
“We are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,” Naklé told the Blade. “That’s why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.”
“We want to use the Olympic games — because there is a big media attention — and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,” he added.
Naklé noted Pride House will host “talks and roundtables every night” during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what Naklé described to the Blade as “the importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.”
Seven LGBTQ Olympians — Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons — are scheduled to participate in Pride House’s Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlani’s documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
“The objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,” he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a “hard time” with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sunday’s medal ceremony.
“I was disappointed because I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking about being decent — human rights and decency,” said Glenn, according to the AP. “So that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.”
Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga
Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show
Bad Bunny on Sunday shared the stage with Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Martin came out as gay in 2010. Gaga, who headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, is bisexual. Bad Bunny has championed LGBTQ rights in his native Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
“Not only was a sophisticated political statement, but it was a celebration of who we are as Puerto Ricans,” Pedro Julio Serrano, president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “That includes us as LGBTQ+ people by including a ground-breaking superstar and legend, Ricky Martin singing an anti-colonial anthem and showcasing Young Miko, an up-and-coming star at La Casita. And, of course, having queer icon Lady Gaga sing salsa was the cherry on the top.”
La Casita is a house that Bad Bunny included in his residency in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, last year. He recreated it during the halftime show.
“His performance brought us together as Puerto Ricans, as Latin Americans, as Americans (from the Americas) and as human beings,” said Serrano. “He embraced his own words by showcasing, through his performance, that the ‘only thing more powerful than hate is love.’”
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