Hockey player Jesse Kortuem comes out as gay crediting Heated Rivalry
Hockey player Jesse Kortuem has come out off the back of Heated Rivalry (Instagram/pelotonjesse / Crave)
Hockey player Jesse Kortuem has come out off the back of Heated Rivalry (Instagram/pelotonjesse / Crave)
Former hockey player Jesse Korteum has come out as gay, crediting Heated Rivalry for helping him do so.
Kortuem, who hasn’t played in the National Hockey League, the top professional ice hockey league in the world, came out via a Facebook post on Tuesday (13 January) where he explained his journey to accepting himself.
In it he thanked The Cutting Edges, a 2SLGBTQIA+ hockey association, who he’d recently spent a weekend with.
“Wearing your jersey that represents both my sport and my community, felt like a bridge being built over a gap I had lived with for decades,” Kortuem wrote.
Describing himself as a “private person” Kortuem said Heated Rivalry had “sparked” something in him and inspired him to come out publicly. “I realised it is finally time to share a journey I have kept close to the vest for a long time,” he said.
He continued: “I felt I had to hide parts of myself for far too long,” as he shared his experience growing up as the youngest of four boys in Minnesota where sports were a big part of life. He shared some of his struggle recognising he was gay and being so involved in world based around specific ideas of masculinity.
“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,” Kortuem said.
Unable to reconcile his sexuality with the sport, Kortuem also said there was little “positive representation in the media” and that coming out in high school in the 2000s would have been a “social disaster”. In the end, he walked away from his high school team.
Kortuem then said that when he was playing as an adult and living in New York and Atlanta he was “out to many people around me in my life at that point”, but not his teammates. He feared how coming out would impact his team’s opinion of him, as well as bringing negative attention to the team by being “the gay player”.
He went on to say: “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.”
The turning point for the athlete was in 2017 when he joined the annual gay hockey tournament Sin City Classic in Las Vegas. Debating whether to remain closeted or give up the sport altogether, Kortuem attended and met other gay players in what became “a paradigm shift”.
Since then, “life has never been the same” for the hockey player. “It has been a long, vulnerable road to move past the closeted athlete persona (something I’m still working on today) and find actual peace,” he said. This, Kortuem said, he’s done through his friendships with other LGBTQ+ players.
Bringing his statement to a close, he repeated his thanks to The Cutting Edges for reminding him “there is room for all of us on the ice”.
Finally he put: “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.”
Speaking to Out, Kortuem reflected on the link between coming out and Heated Rivalry, the popular drama about gay ice hockey players.
“I know many closeted and gay men in the hockey world are being hit hard by Heated Rivalry‘s success. Never in my life did I think something so positive and loving could come from such a masculine sport,” he said.
He added: “Today, I took the step to finally tell my hockey journey and my story.” Kortuem has already had many positive comments from past teammates.
People have swarmed Kortuem’s Facebook post with positive comments, many thanking and applauding him for sharing his story.
Heated Rivalry is based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novel series and primarily follows the love story between Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams).
Heated Rivalry is streaming now.
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