{"id":348062,"date":"2025-12-16T03:10:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T03:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/348062\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T03:10:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T03:10:06","slug":"brock-mcgillis-says-heated-rivalry-wont-help-gay-nhl-players-come-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/348062\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock McGillis Says &#8216;Heated Rivalry&#8217; Won&#8217;t Help Gay NHL Players Come Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> NEED TO KNOW<br \/>\nRetired hockey player and LGBTQ+ advocate Brock McGillis says he doesn&#8217;t agree that the hit show Heated Rivalry will help closeted NHL players come outMcGillis, who is regarded as the first openly gay professional hockey player, told the website PinkNews he believes the show is &#8220;more likely to have an adverse effect on a player coming out&#8221;McGillis&#8217; comments come after former NHL player Sean Avery told Rolling Stone this week he believes the show could help LGBTQ+ players come out<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_2-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Brock McGillis is pushing back at the narrative that HBO\u2019s new <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/heated-rivalry-true-story-11862301\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Heated Rivalry<\/a> series might help more hockey players come out.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_4-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> McGillis, who is regarded as the first openly gay professional hockey player, told the website <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepinknews.com\/2025\/12\/15\/brock-mcgillis-says-heated-rivalry-wont-help-players-come-out\/\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PinkNews<\/a> on Monday, Dec. 15 that he \u201cwholeheartedly\u201d disagrees with fellow retired hockey player <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/ex-nhl-star-sean-avery-talks-steamy-debut-romance-novel-exclusive-11806108\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sean Avery<\/a>\u2019s recent comments that the show could help encourage other players to come out.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_6-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> \u201cIt\u2019s probably more likely to have an adverse effect on a player coming out,\u201d McGillis, 42, told the website. \u201cAnd I hate to be negative because I really enjoy the show. But I also don\u2019t believe that many hockey bros are going to watch it. And I don\u2019t think, if they are watching it, they\u2019re talking about it positively.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_8-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> The hit series, based on author Rachel Reid\u2019s popular novel series Game Changers, centers around two gay players in the fictional equivalent of the NHL who navigate a secret relationship over the course of eight years while both are two of the league\u2019s biggest stars.\n<\/p>\n<p> HBO Max.<\/p>\n<p>HBO Max<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_11-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Starring actors Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, Heated Rivalry was originally adapted for the Canadian streaming service Crave but began streaming on HBO Max on Nov. 28, and was picked up for a second season on Friday.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_13-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Last week, Avery \u2014 a former <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/former-nhl-player-sean-avery-writing-sexy-romance-novel-11730824\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NHL player-turned-romance novelist<\/a> himself \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/product-recommendations\/books\/is-heated-rivarly-show-book-based-on-true-story-1235479361\/\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told<\/a> Rolling Stone that he believes the series\u2019 success could inspire gay NHL players to come out.\n<\/p>\n<p> Sean Avery in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Mike Stobe\/NHLI via Getty\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_16-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> \u201cHeated Rivalry\u2019s success should open the door for the first gay NHL player, if there is one,\u201d Avery told the magazine.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_18-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> But McGillis, who came out in 2016 after he had retired from a semi-professional hockey career that included several seasons in the Ontario Hockey League and the United Hockey League, disagreed.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_22-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> \u201cIt might help the people around [players] understand a little more if they\u2019re dating somebody; hopefully,\u201d the retired hockey player and current LGBTQ+ activist told PinkNews in response to Avery\u2019s comments, adding that NHL players \u201cdidn\u2019t jump out of the closet\u201d when he came out in 2016 and began doing interviews.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_24-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> \u201cNobody\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, yeah. This came out and now I\u2019m ready [to come out],\u2019 \u201d McGillis told the website. \u201cIt\u2019s not happening.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p> HBO Max.<\/p>\n<p>HBO Max<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_27-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> McGillis says hockey has a problem with homophobia, which is normalized in the sport and &#8220;starts at a very young age and progresses.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_29-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> But McGilis told PinkNews he believes the sports\u2019 team-centered culture could actually help them rally around players who decide to come out: \u201cIf a player did come out, hockey players would be the most likely to rally around their teammate more than any of the other big sports.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW Retired hockey player and LGBTQ+ advocate Brock McGillis says he doesn&#8217;t agree that the hit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-348062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}