New Movie to Promote Leaf Pride

Following the success of gay cowboy epic Brokeback Mountain, it was inevitable that there would be more films about other traditionally uber-hetero occupations considered from a queer POV, and Hollywood desks must have been groaning under stacks of scripts about gay race car drivers, Navy SEALs, and oil patch roughnecks.

At the leading edge of this burgeoning trend is Breakfast with Scot, a film currently being shot in Toronto and Hamilton. Tom Cavanaugh (of Ed fame) plays a gay ex-Toronto Maple Leaf who, along with his partner, the team lawyer, ends up as guardian of an 11 year old boy with sexual identity issues of his own.

The filmmakers have gotten approval from both the NHL and the Leafs to use official logos and uniforms, something of an accomplishment in the notoriously homophobic world of professional sport. Not everyone is sold though; the Toronto Star quotes hockey and style icon Don Cherry as joking “I know that Gary Bettman wanted a kinder and gentler league, but this is too much."

There are also fears of a backlash from hockey players concerned that any attention to fashion could mark them as gay, sparking a return to the “mustache and mullet” look of the 80’s.

Photo of Darcy Tucker and Wendell Clark posing for fan photos by Iamkevin in the Torontoist + Flickr Group. We're not suggesting anything.