US EditionHeated Rivalry Matters in a Sporting Culture that Still Sidelines Queer Men
The HBO series sparked renewed calls for cultural change as 63% of LGBTQ+ sports fans reported homophobia, highlighting ongoing exclusion in men’s professional leagues.
4 Articles
4 Articles
Heated Rivalry matters in a sporting culture that still sidelines queer men
Heated Rivalry, the HBO TV adaptation of the second book in Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, rounded out 2025 as a surprise, word-of-mouth success. It captures the relationship between Shane (Hudson Williams) and Ilya (Connor Storrie), two professional male hockey players, over the course of almost a decade. Along the way the pair negotiate their feelings for each other against the backdrop of internal conflict, homophobia and a manufactured …
With the Heated Rivalry series, Quebec's Jacob Tierney adapts Rachel Reid's novels to success, with fidelity praised by fans of the saga. During six episodes, we follow the passionate link between two professional hockey players, competitors on the ice. Between sex, romance and sport, the series successfully tackles – and a very beautiful production – strong themes around LGBTQIA+ identity in the sport. It is not uncommon for a series to create …
Emily Garside on Heated Rivalry & queer TV’s potential to create real-world change
Contains spoilers It’s been a moment since a TV show was almost unavoidable in both media discussions and memeification, but it’s currently impossible to miss “the gay hockey show” aka Heated Rivalry, writer-director-producer Jacob Tierney’s adaptation of Rachel Reid’s Game Changer series of novels. The novels are part of a niche within a niche in... Continue Reading →
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Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources lean Left, 50% of the sources are Center
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