Mike Bell is gay and he loves playing hockey and the camaraderie that goes with it.
"It is just a good group of guys. We all have fun, we all go for beers after," Bell told CBC News.
But Bell's experience with the game at the recreation-league level was not always pleasant.
"I came out to my team that I was playing with in rec hockey a couple of years ago and that year I was asked not to play in the playoffs with them, which essentially led to not playing on the team," he said.
"I took that as an opportunity to address who I was playing with and what I really wanted to get out of recreation hockey."
Bell was surprised to learn that WinSport — a non-profit group that runs winter sports facilities — didn't have any specific rules related to LGBTQ and other slurs on the ice.
He approached Winsport with some friends and they worked together to add some rules to eliminate anti-gay and other slurs on the ice.
"We developed a zero-tolerance policy with their hockey league," Bell said proudly.
And just over a year ago, the Calgary Pioneers team came into being.
"We started a team with WinSport as well, which is an exclusively LGBTQ-focused team. It's the first in Calgary and the first in Alberta."
