Anderson-Dolan, 17, currently plays for the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League, a junior league for young players. He and his older brother were raised by their two moms, Fran and Nancy Anderson-Dolan, in Calgary, Alberta, and they clearly inspired his love of hockey. Fran and Nancy met on a hockey rink, the Spokesman-Review tells us, and Fran captained a Western Canadian Championship team. “When Jaret was a baby, he was around the rink watching his mothers play,” the paper says. He and Fran also share a serious, competitive attitude.
Things haven’t always been smooth sailing for him, however. “When Anderson-Dolan was going through the WHL bantam draft process, some teams told him and his family they would not take him because of his two mothers,” the paper reports. Anderson-Dolan says he doesn’t care, and would rather be in an organization where he is supported completely.
Before one game in February, he decided to participate in the NHL’s Hockey for Everyone inclusion campaign by wrapping rainbow-colored tape around his hockey stick’s blade. His teammates joined in—some just for warmups because of the poor quality of the tape, but two for the whole game.
The Spokesman-Review deserves a few minutes in the penalty box for mentioning which of the moms is his bio mom, which isn’t relevant to the story and only serves to make a biological connection seem more “real” than a nonbiological one.
The paper also notes that despite having two moms, he has male role models—which shouldn’t need stressing but perhaps still does in mainstream media. And I do like what his Uncle Thomas says about him and the women in his life:
I think the advantage for Jaret being surrounded by the volume of love by women in his life, has allowed him to see the world from a bit of a different lens. And that lens of inclusion gives him an advantage, because ultimately the view he gets to see is way more expansive than a traditional family with traditional roles.
He hasn’t been restricted by what a man should be and what a woman should be.
If drafted by the NHL, Anderson-Dolan would not be the first child of LGBTQ parents in a major professional sport. Basketball star Kenneth Faried of the Denver Nuggets also has two moms, and has also been outspoken for his family. (I’m not sure he’s the only other one, either.)
And while Anderson-Dolan has experienced some discrimination in the sport, hockey has also had a few of the first public moments of lesbian and gay acceptance in professional sports. In 2008, the NHL and the Toronto Maple Leafs gave their official sanction to the film Breakfast with Scot, about a gay couple who foster a child. One of the characters is a former NHL player. This was the first time a professional sports league allowed an LGBTQ-themed film to use its uniforms and logos. A year later, in 2009, Brian Burke, president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, “a most public example of hockey machismo,” spoke out in support of his gay son Brendan and other openly gay players. Brendan died in a car accident in 2010, and Brian and his other son, Patrick, formed the You Can Play project to work for the safety and inclusion of LGBTQ athletes in professional sports.
Go read the rest of the Spokesman-Review’s profile of Anderson-Dolan and his family, and keep an eye out for him on the ice in the coming years.
