The PWHL's Gender Inclusion Policy Remains a Work In Progress

Following a historic night at Detroit's Little Caesars Arena on March 16, Jayna Hefford, PWHL Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations, and Amy Scheer, PWHL Executive Vice President of Business Operations, briefly met with the media to discuss the Takeover Tour stop in Motor City. Within a flux of expansion and attendance questions, I asked Jayna Hefford if the league had any sort of update on their Gender Inclusion Policy.

"It's something that we've been continuing to work on, insuring that we get it right. We've really focused on education this season with our players and that started at our orientation camp with sessions where we made sure people feel educated enough to have an important discussion," Jayna Hefford shared with me.

"It's going to be ongoing until we feel like we're there and we feel comfortable with it. It's certainly something we don't want to rush or just copy and paste a policy that we see somewhere else. It's important that we do the work to get it right," Hefford continued.

It's been over 600 days since the PHF was sold to Mark Walter Group and BJK Enterprises. Since then the Professional Women's Hockey League has several historic milestones within their on ice product as they've filled seats, obtained corporate partnership, and recently celebrated their one millionth fan. There's been an abundance to celebrate. But, the lack of urgency to put a gender inclusion policy into place has been concerning.

The PWHL has had their Gender Inclusion Policy "in the works" since the league's first-ever introductory press conference where Hefford was asked about it on Aug. 29, 2023. Hefford said during that press conference that the league was working on a policy about transgender players but gave no further details.

There's no evidence to suggest completing the policy is actually a priority for the PWHL. As the environment for transgender athletes gets more and more hostile in the United States and PWHL players with public histories of transphobia like Britta Curl-Salemme are all but sequestered from the media, the league's continued delays don't suggest a desire to 'do the work to get it right:' they suggest a 'let's hope people forget about it and stop asking us.'

If the PWHL truly wants to be welcoming and inclusive, it's long past time to put up or shut up about gender inclusion.

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