Joel Farabee will join Scott Laughton as a Flyers Pride Game ambassador

Joel Farabee is all about standing up for his teammates. Now, he’s standing up for the LGBTQ+ community.

The forward has joined Scott Laughton this year as the Flyers’ Pride ambassadors. As part of the initiative, he will welcome guests Tuesday night for the organization’s annual Pride Game.

“Honestly, since my first year here, I’ve seen Scott do it. He’s really taken a lot of time out of his day, his family’s time, just to make others feel welcome,” Farabee said. “He’s been doing a great job since I got here, so I always kind of knew it was something I wanted to get involved in with him. And since I’ve done it, I think it’s just been great — the relationships, the people I’ve met throughout doing it.”

Last season, Farabee joined Laughton and then Flyers forward Cam Atkinson at the Mazzoni Center, an LGBTQ+ health and wellness center in Center City. Flyers Charities made a $25,000 donation in support of its cancer program, while Laughton and Flyers governor Dan Hilferty each added $5,000 more. To further support the comprehensive cancer awareness and prevention program, Flyers Charities will be making a $10,000 donation again this season to the Mazzoni Center.

The experience the day before Pride Night 2024 was impactful and helped to center Farabee. He knows it sounds cliché, but visiting the center and meeting the people who work there, especially, helped him step outside the hockey bubble in which players often find themselves.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Scott Laughton is a LGBTQ+ advocate in an effort to make hockey more ‘welcome and inclusive’

“I think during the season, it’s easy just to only focus on hockey,” said Farabee, 24. “I think doing this stuff really helps me meet people [and] I like doing that, too, but just seeing what these people go through. I think a lot of the groups we’ve had, a lot of people have been bullied when they were kids and things like that.

“So just getting their perspective and trying to make hockey feel like a safe space and somewhere they can come have fun with their friends, that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Farabee and Laughton, who is also the Flyers’ You Can Play ambassador, have hosted guests from the LGBTQ+ community throughout the season. They have hosted more than 50 people at Flyers games, and on Tuesday, guests from Hi-Tops will be in attendance. According to its website, Hi-Tops is a “nonprofit organization that fosters strong and healthy young people of all identities by providing inclusive and youth-informed sex education and LGBTQ+ support for young people throughout New Jersey.”

During last season’s Flyers Pride Night, Laughton invited guests from the previous three seasons, totaling more than 50 attendees. Laughton, who had former Flyer James van Riemsdyk involved in the initiative, has regularly hosted members of the LGBTQ+ community at games through his Flyers Pride initiative since 2021. It was established to create a memorable hockey experience and to make every attendee feel welcome and included in the Flyers family.

“[The LGBTQ+ community] is pretty close to me and just having that education of it, growing up and seeing what people go through, I definitely want to help out,” Laughton told The Inquirer last June. “It’s really about making people feel included and welcome and that’s my goal at the end of the day — to grow the game and to have new fans around and to have new players that want to play and feel like they should be playing. So that’s been very special to me.”

It has been special for Farabee to work with one of his best friends, Laughton, on the goal of making hockey feel welcoming for everyone. And for many of those in attendance through the initiative, it’s often their first Flyers game. To make it extra special, they will get a chance to meet the Flyers forwards after the game.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Pride Night ‘trending in the right direction’ a year after the Ivan Provorov controversy

“When you really look at it, it’s just a sport, so to make it feel welcome to everybody,” Farabee said. “When we have the groups come, just seeing smiles on their faces, especially the people that hadn’t been to a game, I think most people I talk to, they’re already itching to come back when they come to a game. So that’s just something that we love doing. And it’s all about bringing people together and putting smiles on people’s faces.”

And, according to Farabee, the smiles go both ways.

Defenseman Erik Johnson (maintenance day) and Laughton (family matter) did not practice Monday ahead of the game with the Detroit Red Wings. … The Flyers put Ryan Poehling on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. “That type of situation, with a head injury, there’s ups and downs, day-to-day,” coach John Tortorella said. “Haven’t checked in with Tommy [Alva, Flyers head athletic trainer] today, but yeah, I’m not sure what the timetable is … But I think each day, he’s getting better.” … In a corresponding move, the Flyers have recalled center Rodrigo Ābols from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League. In 34 games with the Phantoms, the 6-foot-4, 206-pounder has nine goals and 19 points.