Heated Rivalry Inspires IRL Hockey Player Jesse Kortuem To Come Out!

Hockey player Jesse Kortuem , who played as a defenseman and center in several leagues but never the NHL , is publicly coming out as gay after being inspired by Heated Rivalry ! On Tuesday, the athlete took to Facebook to open up about his journey to embracing his sexuality after hiding it for years amid his hockey pursuits. Jesse shared that “something has sparked in me” to go public for the first time, crediting the popular gay romance series, which follows the love story between two closeted hockey players, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. According to Jesse, hockey brings “immense comfort” to many players. But for him, it didn’t for a long time. 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. Growing up as the youngest of four boys in the #StateOfHockey (Minnesota), sports and competition were not just what we did. They were who we were. As a young teenager, I carried a weight that did not seem to fit into that world, and I lived in a constant state of dichotomy. I loved the game, but I lived with a persistent fear. I wondered how I could be gay and still play such a tough and masculine sport.” When Jesse was younger, he said he felt like he could not come out, so he walked away from the sport: “To my younger self, that identity could never be revealed. I did not think those two worlds could occupy the same person, let alone the same locker room. Coming out in the 2000s did not feel like an option, especially with so little positive representation in the media at the time, 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.” It wasn’t until years later that Jesse returned to the sport “at a high level.” However, he “still could not bring myself to be fully out on my adult hockey teams.” Jesse continued: “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. 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.” Everything changed when Jesse participated in a gay hockey tournament in 2017....

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