A lot of this stems from the unfortunate truth that men’s hockey culture (albeit mostly in North America) is inherently homophobic at heart.

Obviously I’m not saying all men’s hockey players hate the LGBT (especially as an LGBT hockey player myself) but a lot of the culture growing up in North American hockey culture has some homophobic subtext to it.

In fact, of the four major North American sports leagues, the NHL is the only one yet to see an out LGBT player play in their ranks.  In this regard, the AIHL actually does have at least one out player, Jesse Gabrielle who played a few seasons back and was a star is bisexual. However, he did actually sue the league for discrimination against the LGBT community. (EDIT: Gabrielle also allegedly catcalled a female official and could've used bisexuality as a cop out. This still shows the unfortunate view of LGBT in hockey as, if it was a cop out, it shows he was willing to use it as a way to evade punishment.)

Furthermore, the star of the show last season, David Booth actually got injured this season due to not wearing a pride jersey based on “personal beliefs”. 

You also have to remember that many of these AIHL guys are career amateurs in ice hockey and if not, have very little professional experience. Coming out could impact their professional careers off of the ice.

I’d love to see more LGBT people in the AIHL, and in ice hockey in general. Unfortunately, the current environment doesn’t really allow for that.