This enforces an idea that LGBTQ+ people and relationships are not meant to be acted upon, either because they are not real or because they will result in a painful tragedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to junior psychology major Miah Bridges, a lot of LGBTQ+ media feels like a joke.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More often, media has begun to challenge these tropes and stereotypes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One recent and very popular example is the TV show \u201cHeated Rivalry,\u201d available on HBO Max.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first season of the show premiered on Nov. 28, 2025, and it quickly broke viewing records, with episode 5 becoming one of the highest rated<\/a> TV episodes on IMDb.\u00a0<\/p>\n The show centers on two renowned hockey players, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, who navigate their sexualities and a secret relationship in an environment that is notoriously unkind to those within LGBTQ+ community.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It starts off with steamy scenes and ends on a tender, hopeful note that senior sustainability major Alexandra Gountas said showcases the realities of \u201cqueer joy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s just really good to have a happy ending for once, because that\u2019s very rare [in LGBTQ+ stories],\u201d Gountas told The Crow\u2019s Nest.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s so rare that Gountas and some other fans of the show were surprised by the happy ending and spent the final episode waiting for a tragedy to occur.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the way most queer media goes, it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, something bad always happens,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI thought they were going to get in a car crash [in episode 6], and a lot of other people did too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She went on to explain that the happy ending \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d season 1 is more reflective of real life.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both the main characters of the show and fans experienced queer joy \u2014 the feeling of happiness that LGBTQ+ people experience when their identities are accepted and celebrated \u2014 during episode 5 of \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d when the hockey player Scott Hunter and his boyfriend Kip Grady shared a kiss on national television.\u00a0<\/p>\n Viewers watch as Ilya and Shane\u2019s shock transforms into hope as they immediately call one another.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The kiss, the reveal that another person in their career is like them, that gives Ilya and Shane the hope to be able to open up to one another more completely and officially enter into a relationship.\u00a0<\/p>\n The interviewees all described the scene as a beautiful depiction of how representation can benefit people.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing gay and trans people online or in my real life was very transformative for me,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cSo, getting to see them [Ilya and Shane] experience things like that, because they\u2019re so deeply closeted, it\u2019s so nice.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Bridges also enjoyed watching the moments where characters could be themselves, stating that she could relate to the characters\u2019 struggles.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI also grew up, hiding my identity, my sexuality for a long time,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Bridges continued on to say that she related to the struggle of not being able to come out for fear of what may happen to them, as she experienced this when coming out to her own family.\u00a0<\/p>\n People on the internet have expressed similar sentiments after finishing the show, and it even inspired former hockey player Jesse Kortuem to come out publicly<\/a> earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI know many closeted and gay men in the hockey world are being hit hard by Heated Rivalry\u2018s success,\u201d Kortuem said in an interview with Out Magazine. \u201cNever in my life did I think something so positive and loving could come from such a masculine sport.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n However, where the show surpassed expectations on LGBTQ+ representation, it failed to measure up when representing people of color.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey mentioned Shane being Asian like twice, but they don\u2019t actually show it,\u201d Kerr told The Crow\u2019s Nest.\u00a0<\/p>\n LGBTQ+ media is typically very white-centered. When there is LGBTQ+ media that features people of color, it utilizes the same harmful tropes that fans hope to steer away from.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bridges and Kerr expressed a desire to see more LGBTQ+ people of color who are allowed to experience happy endings.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would love to see \u2014 I don\u2019t really care if it\u2019s like gay men or lesbians \u2014 but something with two main leads that are both people of color,\u201d Kerr stated.\u00a0<\/p>\n Neither Bridges or Kerr foresee this being an easy feat for tv show and movie creators.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like if they were to bring women of color that are gay into shows, I feel like most people would just look at the fact that they\u2019re people of color and not that they\u2019re gay,\u201d Bridges said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s not what we want. We want them to look at both.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Taking an intersectional<\/a> approach to LGBTQ+ media can ensure that no one has to \u201ctake any representation they can get\u201d and can instead consume media that doesn\u2019t rely on harmful tropes and stereotypes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Everyone deserves to experience the joy of seeing themselves in the media they consume, and \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d is both a step in the right direction and a reminder of how much further we have to go.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cQueer joy is real, and it can be shown through media,\u201d Gountas said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just some fictional\u2026 thing that doesn\u2019t exist, it is a real thing. It deserves to be shown as a real thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Written by: Julia Birdsall<\/a> on February 5, 2026.
Last revised by: Julia Ferrara<\/a>February 4, 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students are hopeful that \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d inspires a new wave of LGBTQ+ media that does not rely on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-144706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}