The Shared Queer Community of Watching Heated Rivalry on the Big Screen

Last night, I walked into the same movie theater my dad used to take me to for weekend double features, and the lobby was full of people in hockey jerseys and fangirls (and fanboys). A whole crowd of us, all there for the exact same reason: six episodes of Heated Rivalry, the gay hockey romance that set the internet ablaze last winter, playing on a huge silver screen. Like a lot of queer kids, I grew up in a fairly conservative household. My parents were amazing and they loved me, certainly, but they didn’t necessarily “get” me. What we did share was film and TV. That was our love language, and it was how we communicated to each other. My dad loved nothing more than showing me his favorite films (and I credit him for everything from my love of Ray Harryhausen and stop motion, to my hatred of westerns — you tried, dad, you really did), and picking them apart afterward. Our nights and weekends were spent gathered around the television. Every birthday and most weekends was spent at the movies, and when I was in elementary or middle school, he begged my mom to let me watch The X-Files because he wanted someone to discuss it with, and I was the best — and only — option. What we never ta...