First Out Gay Hockey Pro Thinks Heated Rivalry Will Lead to More Players Staying in the Closet

Brock McGillis, the first out gay professional hockey player, has poured cold water on the idea that Heated Rivalry will help players come out.

via:EW

"Nobody's like, 'Oh, yeah. This came out and now I'm ready [to come out].' It's not happening," he told the LGBTQ news site PinkNews on Monday. "It's probably more likely to have an adverse effect on a player coming out. 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."

Adapted from a 2019 book by Rachel Reid, the Canadian drama series quickly garnered attention upon its November premiere for its racy intimate scenes and boundary-pushing depiction of a closeted queer romance in the world of professional hockey.

Stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, as well as series creator Jacob Tierney, have spoken to their hopes that this slice of queer representation will help some of the viewers that it finds, perhaps even within a sport that demands "perfection and masculinity," as Williams put it in a Friday interview.

"There's both like the representation of a queer character that a lot of people relate with, whether they feel like him or they feel like they knew him," Williams continued. "That element is really beautiful and I didn't know if it would connect, you know? You only hope and it is on the person-to-person level, where they're looking you in their eyes and that means something."

But McGillis, who is now retired but played professional hockey for a decade while in the closet, isn't so sure.

"Episode one gave me a panic attack," McGillis noted. "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."

Though McGillis describes hockey players generally as "really good people," he also explained, "The language, behaviors, and attitudes that you get in locker rooms are sometimes homophobic — 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." That's the element he feels is missing from the show's depiction of the culture around professional hockey.

McGillis recalled when he came out of the closet in 2016, or when his fellow pro Luke Prokop did the same in 2021. Though they both took "every press" opportunity to try and normalize being queer within the elite tier of the sport, that didn't result in other players "[jumping] out of the closet."

Heated Rivalry has also faced criticism from the opposite front. Gay actor and comedian Jordan Firstman called the show out last week as "just not gay," and about "two straight hockey players pretending to be gay and f---ing." In response, star François Arnaud shot back, "Is there only one way to have 'authentic' gay sex on TV? Should the sex that closeted hockey players have look like the sex that sceney L.A. gay guys have?"