The NHL has been a proactive league in trying to get rid of homosexual stereotypes and gay slurs out of the game and the league took another step in that direction on Thursday, joining up with You Can Play, which is a group that works to help educate and promote gay and lesbian equality and making sports more open for gays.

According to Reuters, the NHL is trying to get rid of the "casual homophobia" in sports and the league is the first of the major sports to take a step officially in that direction. Some players in the past have come out to support gay equality, including Rangers star Sean Avery. Patrick Burke, a talent scout for the Philadelphia Flyers who co-founded You Can Play, spoke about the things coach Mike Rice said at Rutgers and used it as an example of what the group is trying to fight.

"If you were to go to a group of athletes and say, 'Would you support an openly gay friend,' the vast majority would say yes. But if you were to say, 'How many of you have used an anti-gay term in the last 48 hours,' the majority would also say yes," Burke said.

"We have this disconnect with people and that's where education comes in. These are the only slurs today that can be explained away by someone saying, 'I didn't mean it that way.' With other slurs, racial slurs, that doesn't happen."

The league said it would launch an education campaign targeting players and fans intended to promote tolerance.

"Our motto is 'Hockey Is For Everyone,'" said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. "The official policy of the NHL is one of inclusion on the ice, in our locker rooms and in the stands."

So far no pro athlete in any of the four major U.S. sports leagues -- a list that also includes Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Basketball Association -- has come out as gay during his career.

Some, including former NFL defensive back Wade Davis, NBA center John Amaechi and MLB outfielder Billy Bean, have come out after retiring from their sports.

Burke's brother, Brendan, was a manager of a college ice hockey team who came out as gay in 2009 and a year later died in a car accident.

Support for gay rights has risen markedly in the United States over the past decade, with gay marriage now legal in nine U.S. states plus the District of Columbia.

A March Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 63 percent of Americans support gay marriage or civil unions, though there were sharp regional differences with support higher in the Northeast and lower in the South.

(Reuters)