Milwaukee Admirals’ Luke Prokop shares journey as first openly gay hockey player in NHL, AHL

We are back here live at Pride Fest. The first openly gay professional hockey player in *** major American league plays for the Milwaukee Admirals. Luke Procopp will serve as *** grand marshal for this year’s Milwaukee Pride parade, and it’s happening this weekend in *** project community exclusive. He shares his story with 12 News and Jordan. Milwaukee Admirals Luke Procock, the American Hockey League. Well, being Canadian, you’re basically born with skates on, you know, I have an older brother who, who played my dad played, my grandpa played all the men in my family played, so it was just kind of natural for me to get into the sport as he grew into the sport, he grew into himself. I mean, I’d probably known something was different about me when I was 14 years old. It wasn’t until the 2020 COVID lockdown. Down, he knew that something couldn’t stay locked up. But being, you know, stuck in my house with my family for 5 months really got me closer to them. My sister, we were doing everything together and I noticed that, you know, she’s probably the least judgmental person that I know on this planet, so I knew with her that it was gonna be good no matter what and that would give me the confidence to kind of start coming out to. You know, my, my, my mom, my dad, my brother. And with one social media post in July 2021, he became the first openly gay professional hockey player in either the NHL or the AHL. Writing, quote, I hope that in sharing who I am, I can help other people see that gay people are welcome in the hockey community as we work to make sure that hockey truly is for everyone. I didn’t have anyone to look kind of look up to in the sports world, you know, watching hockey on TV every night. Um, so I kind of wanted to be that for someone else, and I knew it would help me personally too on the ice. It was scary going into it not knowing how the reaction was gonna be and it end up being super positive, more positive than I thought it was gonna be. Do you consider yourself, uh, *** role model? I kind of would say no because I haven’t really been doing the whole time. I’ve really just been focusing on my career, but again also just playing hockey and and and being visible to people on the ice that is, you know, that’s doing enough for for some people just being for them to be able to see. You know, the pride tape on my stick on the ice or you know to I get pride bracelets made for me every now and then so you know when when we’re walking into the arena we’re getting photos taken to see those, you know, uh, on my wrist, little things like that just by doing my job I feel like that I I can I’m *** role model in that sense breaking the ice and breaking barriers. With pro cop pride at center ice, I always tell individuals to take their time. It’s *** very important process in your life and not to feel rushed doing it. There is *** whole community out there, millions of people who will love and accept you for who you are no matter what, um, so even though they may not be your blood, they’re still gonna be your family. In Milwaukee, I’m Jaron Jordan, WISN 12 News. Such an important story to share, Procup says that he loves Milwaukee and hopes to continue growing with the Admirals before one day making it into the NHL. Now he will serve as *** Grand Marshal in the Milwaukee Pride Parade Sunday afternoon like I mentioned, that kicks off at 2 p.m. along 2nd Street in the Walker Point neighborhood. So definitely look out for the 12 News team that’s going to be out there on Sunday.

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