Jesse Kortuem, a hockey player, has come out as gay, crediting the gargantuan success of Heated Rivalry with giving him the confidence to live openly.
In a lengthy statement on his Facebook page, the athlete told followers that he isn’t the type of person to “share much, if anything publicly on social media,” before crediting Jacob Tierney’s universally acclaimed gay romance, starring Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, with inspiring him to be open about his sexuality.
“I realized it is finally time to share a journey I have kept close to the vest for a long time. To any hockey player, the sounds of the rink and the feel of cold air are unmistakable. The slapshots, the pucks hitting the boards, the skates carving fresh ice, and the high-pitched clang of a puck hitting the post bring immense comfort,” he wrote.
“For a long time, however, the rink did not feel like a place where I could be all of me. I felt I had to hide parts of myself for far too long.”
Kortuem, who never played in the NHL but competed as a defenseman/centre in various leagues, revealed that he grew up as the youngest of four boys in Minnesota (widely known as the “#StateOfHockey”) and therefore “carried a weight that did not seem to fit into that world.”
“I lived in a constant state of dichotomy. I loved the game, but I lived with a persistent fear,” he explained. “I wondered how I could be gay and still play such a tough and masculine sport.”
Kortuem said it didn’t feel possible for him to come out as a gay hockey player in the 00s, largely due to the lack of positive representation in the media, “and it would have been a social disaster at such a large high school.”
“At 17, I walked away from the high school team and the brotherhood of hockey friendships I had developed from a young age for a myriad of reasons,” he continued. “Years later, while living in New York and Atlanta, I found myself back on the ice playing at a high level. While I was out to many people around me in my life at that point, I still could not bring myself to be fully out on my adult hockey teams.
“On the outside, I was still a top-tier player. On the inside, I was still that kid in Minnesota hiding. Like many closeted athletes, revealing who I truly was to my team would change everything in an instant, their opinion of me, could bring negative attention to the team with the “gay player”, so I never took the chance.
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“I spent every week in a locker room with guys I respected, yet I still did not feel safe enough to tell them who I truly was. Even when the conversation turned to wives, families, or dating, I would quickly change the subject. If it came down to it, I would just tell them I was single, even when I was seeing someone.
“The road from that teenager in Minnesota to the man I am today has not been so clear of a path. It involved a lot of searching, a lot of struggle, things I look back on that I’m not happy about, and the difficult work of reconciling my past with my truth.”
Kortuem “reached a breaking point in 2017” and was close to quitting the sport he loved. He decided to compete in a gay hockey tournament for the Sin City Classic, the largest annual LGBTQIA+ sporting event in the world, which hosts more than 10,000 athletes in Las Vegas.
After previously attending gay tournaments where he “never really meshed” with other competitors, he experienced a “paradigm shift” at the Sin City Classic, meeting players from across the US and Canada with whom he found “actual peace.”
Kortuem now plays for the Cutting Edges Hockey Club, an LGBTQIA+ hockey club based in Vancouver, Canada.
“This past weekend at Sun Peaks was so much more than just a few hockey games. Standing on that ice, I realized I have finally found my peace. Thank you again to The Cutting Edges Hockey Club for the incredible weekend and for the reminder that there is room for all of us on the ice,” he said.
Kortuem ended by speaking directly to those in the closet or searching for their place in the sport: “This is my story. It is not everyone’s story, but for what it is worth, I thought I would share because I want to speak to the athletes out there who are still in the closet or struggling to find their way.
“I want you to know that there is hope and you’re not alone. There is a life and a deep happiness waiting for you on your path. You will get through this, and it is going to be okay.”
Adapted from Rachel Reid’s novel of the same name in her Game Changers MLM romance series, Heated Rivalry premiered in November on Crave in Canada and HBO Max in the U.S.
The show follows rival hockey players Shane Hollander (Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Storrie) as they embark on a secret fling that unfolds into a multi-year journey of “love, denial and self-discovery.”
Heated Rivalry has received widespread critical acclaim, with episodes five and six ranking among the highest-rated of all time on IMDb. Critics lauded the performances and chemistry of Storrie and Williams, Tierney’s faithfulness to the source material and the series’ intimate scenes.
Storrie and Williams have since been propelled to international fame, each amassing over two million Instagram followers, gracing the covers of publications including GQ, Cultured, Interview and Timid, and receiving invitations to present at the 2026 Golden Globes.
The series has been renewed for a second season (with a possible third in the works!), which will reportedly start filming in the summer.
