Shows like Heated Rivalry help create safe spaces for P.E.I.'s LGBTQ+ community, advocates say

Like many others who have been drawn in by the steamy hockey drama series, Cameron Cassidy has watched Heated Rivalry multiple times over. 

"What drew me in to begin with was the intrigue of there being a show about the intersection between queerness and sport, just generally," Cassidy, the executive director of Pride P.E.I., told Mainstreet P.E.I. host Steve Bruce. 

"And then, to be honest, the storyline that developed... as it progressed just locked me in." 

Heated Rivalry, based on Nova Scotia author Rachel Reid's Game Changers book series, tells the story of two professional hockey players who also happen to be queer.

While the sexuality of the characters and the intimacy shared between them is an important element of the narrative, it's not the whole story.

Members of P.E.I.'s LGBTQ+ community say they hope this kind of representation — which highlights the depth and complexity of queer people without reducing the characters to stereotypes — helps create safer spaces for others to be themselves. 

"It helps kind of contextualize for young queer folks that you are so much more than just your identity," Cassidy said. "You are a deep, meaningful person who can have all these types of relationships and feelings and family dynamics." 

Even though Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are fictional characters, their impact on audiences is real. 

"A fictional story — it comes from somewhere. I don't think that this particular story is one that couldn't happen. And perhaps it's happened before. I have no idea," Cassidy said.

"There are queer people everywhere.... That just is the reality of the world. And I think what's interesting is that we might not hear about it as much because, particularly in sport, I think that there's still a lot of homophobia that exists in those environments."

That sentiment doesn't just apply to major sports. 

For Dave Stewart, a movie reviewer and creative in the film industry, school gym class is an example of a space where people might encounter a queerphobic atmosphere. 

"Sometimes it takes a piece of art and culture to come forward to highlight that there's an issue with something," he said. "Hopefully this will help blow apart that locker room... heteronormativity." 

Stewart remembers how it felt when he was a young person coming out of the closet and realizing who he was as a person.