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From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n
Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRead more<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nReal-life ice hockey player Jesse Korteum has credited the hit romance drama series Heated Rivalry<\/em>, <\/em>about two closeted competitors in the sport, for inspiring him to come out as gay.<\/p>\nKorteum, from Minnesota, said in a new social media post that he spent his career on the ice rink as a closeted athlete struggling to \u201creconcile two identities,\u201d but the TV show had encouraged him to share his story publicly.<\/p>\n
The athlete, who has competed as a defenseman\/center in several leagues, though not the NHL, explained that he was out to his close friends and family, but did not feel safe enough to tell his teammates about his sexuality.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who know me best know that I don\u2019t share much if anything publicly on social media, but lately, something has sparked in me (ok \u2014 yes credit to #HeatedRivalry). I realized it is finally time to share a journey I have kept close to the vest for a long time,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Korteum said that the ice hockey rink was a place where he felt he had to \u201chide parts of myself for far too long\u201d growing up as the youngest of four boys in competitive sport.<\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\u2018I wondered how I could be gay and still play such a tough and masculine sport,\u2019 Jesse Korteum shared on social media (Instagram via @pelotonjessie)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Gay ice hockey romance \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019, starring Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, has inspired closeted athlete Jesse Korteum to come out (Crave)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\u201cAs a young teenager, I carried a weight that did not seem to fit into that world, and I lived in a constant state of dichotomy,\u201d he continued. \u201cI loved the game, but I lived with a persistent fear. I wondered how I could be gay and still play such a tough and masculine sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kortuem also said there was little \u201cpositive representation in the media\u201d and that coming out in high school in the 2000s would have been a \u201csocial disaster\u201d. <\/p>\n
Kortuem added that when he was playing as an adult and living in New York and Atlanta, he was \u201cout to many people around me in my life at that point,\u201d but not his teammates. <\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cI spent every week in a locker room with guys I respected, yet I still did not feel safe enough to tell them who I truly was.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the post, he thanked Cutting Edges, a Vancouver-based LGBT+ hockey association, for reminding him \u201cthere is room for all of us on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heated Rivalry<\/em>, which follows two closeted gay and bisexual professional hockey players as they grapple with how their romance will affect their careers, has taken the internet by storm and rocked the ice hockey community.<\/p>\n\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 has taken the internet by storm and rocked the ice hockey community (Crave)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams in the \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 (Crave)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nOne of the show\u2019s leads, Hudson Williams, who portrays hockey player Shane Hollander, revealed that week he had received heartfelt messages from multiple closeted professional athletes after the hockey romance series went viral.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people who reach out, somewhat anonymously, who are like, \u2018I\u2019m a professional player still, and I\u2019m still in the closet,\u2019\u201d Williams said on Andy Cohen\u2019s SiriusXM show Radio Andy<\/em>. <\/p>\nThe actor said the show was \u201chitting people right in the nerve\u201d as athletes from across different sports, including football players and basketball players, had reached out to him.<\/p>\n
Heated Rivalry\u2019s <\/em>season one finale aired last month, bringing an end to the six weeks that skyrocketed the show to record-breaking fame. The series, based on Rachel Reid\u2019s book series Game Changers<\/em>, has already been renewed for a second season on Crave\/HBO Max. The programme was released in the UK on Sky this week.<\/p>\nThe NHL has never had an openly gay player. But 23-year-old Canadian player, Luke Prokop, became the first player under contract with an NHL team to come out as gay in 2021, though he plays with an affiliate AHL team and has not made it into the NHL.<\/p>\n
Prokop recently told the New York Times<\/em> that some NHL teams viewed LGBT+ players as a \u201cdistraction\u201d from the sport.<\/p>\n\u201cWith hockey and the LGBTQ community, it\u2019s tricky. You don\u2019t want to do too much to draw attention to it, where some teams might say, \u2018Oh, we view that as a distraction. So, we don\u2019t want them on our team.\u2019 There\u2019s been instances where that\u2019s come up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In October 2023, the NHL banned Pride Night jerseys and rainbow-colored tape, months after some players opted out of their team\u2019s Pride Night festivities. But the tape ban was reversed when Arizona Coyotes defenseman Travis Dermott defied the rules by covering his stick in rainbow tape during a game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more Real-life ice hockey player Jesse Korteum has credited the hit romance drama series Heated Rivalry, about two closeted competitors in the sport, for inspiring him to come out as gay. Korteum, from Minnesota, said in a new social media post that he spent his career on the ice rink as a closeted athlete struggling to \u201creconcile two identities,\u201d but the TV show had encouraged him to share his story publicly. The athlete, who has competed as a defenseman\/center in several leagues, though not the NHL, explained that he was out to his close friends and family, but did not feel safe enough to tell his teammates about his sexuality. \u201cThose who know me best know that I don\u2019t share much if anything publicly on social media, but lately, something has sparked in me (ok \u2014 yes credit to #HeatedRivalry). I realized it is finally time to share a journey I have kept close to the vest for a long time,\u201d he wrote. Korteum said that the ice hockey rink was a place where he felt he had to \u201chide parts of myself for far too long\u201d growing up…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10805"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}