I Love LA’s Jordan Firstman swiftly backtracks on Heated Rivalry criticism
Jordan Firstman has backtracked on his Heated Rivalry criticism. (Getty/Supplied)
Jordan Firstman has backtracked on his Heated Rivalry criticism. (Getty/Supplied)
I love LA’s Jordan Firstman has been quick to backtrack on his Heated Rivalry criticism following a significant backlash.
In an interview with Vulture, published on 11 December, the actor, writer and comedian slammed the queer hockey romance as inauthentic.
“I’m sorry, I watched those first two episodes of Heated Rivalry, and it’s just not gay. It’s not how gay people f***. There’s so few things that actually show gay sex,” he said.
Firstman claimed a “straight guy could not write” about gay sex, despite the fact that Heated Rivalry’s creator, Jacob Tierney, is gay.
His remarks sparked backlash online, with the show’s star François Arnaud hitting back at Firstman on Instagram.
“Is there only one way to have ‘authentic’ gay sex on TV? Should the sex closeted hockey players have look like the sex sceney LA gay guys have?” Arnaud wrote in an Instagram comment that has accumulated almost 30,000 likes.
The backlash appears to have forced Firsthand into submission. He took to his Instagram Story on Saturday, 13 December, writing: “I love Heated Rivalry and ultimately I’m a f***** who can’t shut the f*** up but I’m gunna get better at that.”
Season 2 of Heated Rivalry has been confirmed. Created, written and directed by Jacob Tierney, the show follows the multi-year story of Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams), two rival ice hockey players who engage in a passionate romance.
Based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, the show has made waves thanks to the actors’ chemistry and the incredibly steamy sex scenes.
In 2023, Firstman spoke to PinkNews about letting it all hang out in his X-rated film Rotting in the Sun: the indie comedy-thriller made waves at Sundance after headlines declared Rotting in the Sun as “the movie with 30 d**ks”, instantly putting it on the radar of millennial Instagram gays.
In 2021, he opened up about the misconception that the gay community’s suffering is over.
The comedian has previously faced backlash over his tweets, including one in which he joked about hiring a Black women “to fight in my place when needed”. In a separate tweet he joked about killing homeless people.
He swiftly apologised on his Instagram, sharing that the “jokes” were posted in 2012 when he was 19.
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