Carolina Hurricanes fans build LGBTQ+ community in Raleigh
A fan group that started with one online post drew hundreds to Raleigh Brewing, giving LGBTQ Hurricanes supporters a more welcoming place to watch.
At Raleigh Brewing’s taproom on Neil Street, the Carolina Gayniacs are turning Hurricanes watch parties into something Raleigh has not always offered LGBTQ fans: a place to feel at home while the game is on.
The group began with a gay Canes fan posting online in search of others to watch with. In just a couple of months, co-founders Matt Parr, Dana Salmon-Skjellum and Mel Lennon said the idea moved from a Discord chat and an initial meetup to weekly events and watch parties. Lennon said, “In just two months, I mean, we saw hundreds of people flow in.” The group’s website describes it as a space for LGBTQ+ Carolina Hurricanes fans.
That appeal goes beyond fandom. Some LGBTQ hockey fans have long described slurs and other uncomfortable treatment in sports spaces, and that reality helps explain why the Gayniacs’ growth has resonated so quickly. The group is giving people a way to watch the Canes together without having to wonder whether they belong in the building, the bar or the conversation afterward.
Raleigh Brewing’s Saturday night gathering showed how quickly that demand can surface. The brewery, a Raleigh-based company with locations in Raleigh, Cary and at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, has made its Raleigh taproom at 3709 Neil Street a hub for the group’s events. The reach is expanding at the same time hockey is reaching new audiences, including fans drawn in by the TV show Heated Rivalry. The Gayniacs want those newcomers to know there is a place for them in the sport.
The Carolina Hurricanes have made similar signals in their own outreach. The team posted in 2019 that it was proud to support Hockey Is For Everyone initiatives through Pride Night, and its official Pride Night page says the next one is scheduled for Dec. 13. A Hurricanes preview from Dec. 13, 2024 said Ottawa visited Lenovo Center for Pride Night with a 7:00 p.m. puck drop. NHL diversity materials say Hockey Is For Everyone month includes LGBTQ inclusion and a partnership with You Can Play.
The movement also fits Raleigh’s larger history. Wake County grew from 1,129,410 residents in the 2020 Census to an estimated 1,257,235 on July 1, 2025, and county government projects a need for 125,000 to 175,000 additional housing units over the next 10 to 15 years. Raleigh’s LGBTQIA+ historic context study found that no properties tied to the city’s LGBTQ history were listed in 2019, even though the Warehouse District, especially the 300 block of West Hargett Street, once held a concentration of gay businesses and gathering places from the 1970s through the 1990s.
That makes the Gayniacs more than a watch-party club. In a city with institutions such as Equality North Carolina and the LGBT Center of Raleigh, the group is helping carve out visible space inside Raleigh’s biggest sports tradition, and that shift may matter as much as any goal at Lenovo Center.
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