The New York Rangers and owner Madison Square Garden are facing a lavender rebellion. Gay fans, such as Kevin Jennings, are growing more vocal in their fight against homophobic epithets hurled during home games.

[Some] fans recalled that the crowd booed when the name of the New York City Gay Hockey Association, a recreational league, flashed briefly across the jumbo screen.

“It’s a pervasive problem,” said Jennings, who is the executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a nonprofit group that promotes tolerance of gays and lesbians. “I took my godson a few months ago. I won’t take him again. He’s 6. I don’t want him looking around and seeing other men engaging in this behavior and thinking this is the way you behave.”

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