This story originally appeared on Them.
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’s nights at odds. “I’m a woman in sports; I understand the need for that, but we can do that alongside Pride Night, too. I don’t see the reason why we can’t do both.”
The lack of a Pride Night led Copeland to tweet about the situation. “‘Screw it. I'm throwing my own Pride Night and everyone's invited,’” Copeland posted on social media, she told Chron. Afterwards, the post garnered beaucoup support from other Stars fans, prompting Copeland to reach out to her friend Jason, a trans Stars fan who is reportedly affiliated with the team, though Chron did not specify the nature of his ties. The group decided their unofficial Pride Night would benefit Dallas Hope Charities, a local LGBTQ+ youth nonprofit organization.
“I immediately was like, ‘Yep, let’s do it. Let me volunteer my resources, figure out what we can do,’” Jason, who only gave his first name due to his involvement with the Stars, recounted to the outlet.
The team has previously been very outspoken in support of its queer fans, per Chron. Not only did they host annual Pride Nights for several years running, in 2017 the Stars became the first professional Texas sports team to oppose a bathroom bill barring trans people from using the restroom that matches their gender identity in public buildings.
“The Stars have always been very supportive and outspoken,” Jason said. “It felt like a betrayal of sorts for this team that I love to all of a sudden just decide not to do a Pride Night.”
Copeland and Jason will hold their Pride Night celebration on November 14, 2026, at the Stars game against the Buffalo Sabres.
“I think it’s really important that we do what we can to carry that on, even if the team themselves feel like they can't do that anymore,” Copeland said.
Since announcing the fan-led Pride Night, a steady stream of donations have poured in by donating season tickets in order for LGBTQ+ fans to attend and jerseys to raffle off for charity. Drag queens have offered to perform and Sue Ellen’s, Texas’s oldest operating lesbian bar, has reached out to host an afterparty.
The Carolina Hurricanes, who are also dealing with a cancelled Pride Night, have also reached out to Copeland for pointers on how to host their own LGBTQ+ appreciation event.
“It's bigger than the Stars at this point,” Copeland said.
Appreciating LGBTQ+ fans has become a hot-button topic in professional sports following a June 2026 stunt in which San Francisco Giants wrote Bible verses on their Pride Night hats, which sported a rainbow-colored Giants logo. The verses were a reference to the rainbow’s origin as a sign of God’s covenant with Noah following the flooding of the world.
The MLB responded by asserting its policy of not writing on official uniforms — a policy they said they enforce unilaterally, regardless of religion. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley responded by claiming that the league engaged in religious discrimination against players. In response, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred noted in a letter that the official policy says that players may not “write, attach, affix, embroider or otherwise display nicknames or messages on apparel or playing equipment” in order to avoid the “potential to offend some segment of our fanbase.”
Some NHL teams, such as the Boston Bruins, have never hosted an LGBTQ+ Pride Night, per the New York Times. During hockey Pride Nights, players often wear rainbow jerseys and wrap their sticks in rainbow tape. In June 2023, following some players’ refusal to don the rainbow sports gear, the league banned LGBTQ+ Pride jerseys. That October, the league banned players from wrapping their sticks in rainbow tape before reversing the decision two weeks later.
Copeland said they envision their forthcoming home-brewed event as a celebration of the diversity among the Stars fandom.
“We’re always going to be here as queer fans,” Jason told Chron. “They’re not going to scare us away by choosing not to have Pride Night. We’re always going to be here, and we’re just going to do our own thing.”
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