There are still no openly gay men in the NHL. Can this change the series "Hot Rivalry"?

The success of the gay series about Heated Rivalry hockey ("Hot Rivalry") again drew attention to one of the most closed topics in professional sports - stigma and the lack of open gays in the NHL.

TV Show Heated Rivalry, inspired by Rachel Reed's "Game Changers" book series, is rapidly gaining popularity in North America: in Canada it is released on Crave, in the United States on HBO Max. But how does its plot relate to the real life of the National Hockey League?

Despite notable progress in other sports, where even professional football is openly gay, the NHL remains the last of the four largest men's sports leagues in North America, where there is still not a single current or former player who has publicly declared his homosexuality.

In hockey, the attitude towards homosexuality is ambiguous. On the one hand, it is believed that hockey is "too much of a man's game, it is too homophobic in its content", on the other hand, many professional athletes are neutral or have a good attitude towards gays. At the same time, the NHL has established a partnership agreement with the organization The You Can Play Projectthat collaborates with LGBT athletes. As part of the partnership, the NHL has appointed a player on each team who will represent the interests of homosexual colleagues. In November 2020, Bane Pettinger became the first openly gay hockey agent in the NHL. The Canadian came out in an interview with The Athletic. Bain's decision was supported by such famous hockey players as Conor McDavid and Sidney Crosby. // Wikipedia

TV Show Heated Rivalry tells the story of two professional hockey players, Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storry), who play for different teams in a fictional version of the NHL. On the ice, they are irreconcilable rivals, outside the game they have a secret affair. As their relationship deepens, the characters face the pressures of masculinity, the cult of "toughness" and the realities of a professional league where gay players prefer to stay in the closet.

Is it true that there are "no gays" in the NHL?

Spoiler: There are definitely enough gays there. But. Not a single NHL player has officially come out. In the entire history of the league, there has not been a single hockey player who would openly declare his homosexuality - even after the end of his career.

For comparison: in 2013, basketball player Jason Collins made a historic coming-out, becoming the first openly gay among active NBA players and the first active athlete in one of the four major men's leagues in North America.

In American football, more than 30 players have come out, including Dave Kopey, Jerry Smith, Roy Simmons, Wade Davis and Ryan O'Callaghan (all after retirement). In 2021, Las Vegas Raiders guard Carl Nassib became the first active NFL player to openly declare his homosexuality.

In MLB (Major League baseball) There were also coming-outs after the end of their careers - and in some cases, the sexual orientation of the players was known to colleagues even during their performances. For example, Los Angeles Dodgers star Glenn Burke, who is often called the inventor of hi-fi, was open to teammates and coaches, and publicly announced himself in 1982. In 1999, Billy Beane came out, and in 2014 he became the first MLB ambassador for inclusion. In 2022, former MLB player TJ House spoke about his homosexuality - he became the third professional baseball player to do so publicly.

Why is that?

Because hockey is:

• Fear of losing a contract, team, fan support
• Hypermasculine culture
• locker rooms where homophobic jokes have historically been the norm
• The cult of "endure", "don't whine", "be a man"

Against this background, the NHL looks more and more archaic. Nevertheless, there are reasons for cautious optimism. The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) has about 30 open queer players this season.

There is also a potential "first" player

Yes Luke Prokop is openly gay, drafted by an NHL club.
But he has not yet played a single game in the NHL, only in the leagues below.

Luke Prokop, selected 73rd overall in the 2020 NHL Draft by the Nashville Predators. In 2021, he came out. Now the 23-year-old defenseman plays for the Bakersfield Condors, the farm club of the Edmonton Oilers in the AHL. If Prokop takes to the ice in the NHL, he will become the first openly gay man in the history of the league.

At the same time, former NHL players doubt that there have never been gays in the league - rather, we are talking about a total culture of silence. Former NHL star Sean Avery in an interview Rolling Stone admitted that he personally does not know open players, but considers it almost impossible that over the years of his career he "has never had a closed gay teammate."

According to him, the success of Heated Rivalry could be the very cultural shift that finally opens the door for the first open NHL player — if, of course, he decides to go through it.