Former professional hockey player Brock McGillis isn’t convinced that “Heated Rivalry” will inspire future hockey players to come out. In fact, he believes it may have the opposite effect.
McGillis, widely considered the first openly gay professional hockey player, told Pink News on Monday that, while the show may raise awareness for closeted gay athletes, he does not think it will realistically create change.
Former New York Rangers player Sean Avery said that “Heated Rivalry” could help players come out, but McGillis disagreed “wholeheartedly,” saying Avery is “just trying to get press.”
“It’s probably more likely to have an adverse effect on a player coming out,” McGillis said. “And I hate to be negative because I really enjoy the show. But I also don’t believe that many hockey bros are going to watch it. And I don’t think, if they are watching it, they’re talking about it positively.”
The hit series, based on author Rachel Reid’s popular novel series “Game Changers,” follows closeted hockey rivals Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) as they spark a romance while at the height of their careers. The steamy HBO Max series has opened up conversations about gay representation in the sport.
“Nobody’s like, ‘Oh, yeah. This came out and now I’m ready [to come out],’” McGillis joked of the show’s sexually explicit scenes. “It’s not happening.”
McGillis did not come out until 2016, years after he finished his semi-professional hockey career that included several seasons in the Ontario Hockey League and the United Hockey League. Yet he is still considered the first out professional player.
When it comes to realistically capturing a sense of the hockey culture, McGillis said the series could have shown more normalized homophobia that he says exists in the sport.
“The language, behaviors and attitudes that you get in locker rooms are sometimes homophobic,” he said. “That starts at a very young age and progresses through your whole life. You’re programmed to feel that everyone will hate you and you’ll lose your career.”
“Episode one gave me a panic attack,” he added. “I was scared. I dated a guy for three years, not a soul in my life knowing. We had an alias for [me in his phone] in case [his friends] ever saw.”
To the sport’s defense, McGillis said, if a player did come out, his hockey teammates would be more likely to rally around him than in other big sports.
The first four episodes of “Heated Rivalry” are available to stream on HBO Max. The show releases weekly on Fridays until Dec. 26.
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