Tag: LGBT

Turning 62

WARNING: This is yet another one of my Ryan-Schultz-patented meandering editorial blog posts, written during the week I turn 62 years old. I promise you, I will soon return to regularly-scheduled programming about (as the tagline of my blog now states) “News and Views on Social VR, Virtual Worlds, and the Metaverse, plus Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI’s Impact on the Metaverse.” (Hey, at least, this time, I didn’t write a whole goddamn paragraph for the blogpost title. 😜)

My birthday always falls in the very coldest of winter weather here in Winnipeg, and today has been the coldest day this season by far:

Screenshot

According to the Environment Canada website, with the windchill factored in, it feels like -48°C (that works out to -54°F for you metric-system-averse Americans). Even worse, it’s going to stay this cold for at least the next seven days, according to the forecast:

This is the time of year when we intrepid Winnipeggers, bundled up in layers covering every square centimetre of skin except for the eyes, stumble between our homes and our cars, and then rush from our cars to our workplaces, mumbling the following hallowed mantra: “noearthquakesnovolcanoesnoearthquakesnovolcanoesnoearthquakesnovolcanoes….“

But fear not! While I beaver away in my (thankfully heated) cubicle at the University of Manitoba Libraries, I am surrounded by the sights and sounds of gentle waves rippling along a sandy beach in Bora Bora, one of the Apple Vision Pro’s expertly-designed immersive Environments:

The clouds gently hover, and the palm trees sway, as I work away on my MacBook Pro, using the Virtual Display feature in my Apple Vision Pro headset. Simply by reaching up and turning the upper right knob on my AVP, I banish my drab workspace surroundings in wintry Winnipeg, and replace it with a tropical paradise!! (Drinks with umbrellas not included; they would frown upon that at work.)

I have already written at length about my continuing neck and shoulder pain, due to a couple of deteriorating joints in the cervical part of my spine, the first serious sign that my aging body is starting to wear out. However, having now had some everal months’ experience with this discomfort, I now know that the two biggest triggers of that pain are:

  • Sitting too long in front of a desktop computer or notebook computer, hunched over my keyboard; and
  • When I get stressed, my neck and shoulder muscles tend to tighten up, and soon my shoulders are aching.

So, I now spend between 4 and 6 hours per workday using the Mac Virtual Display on my trusty Apple Vision Pro headset with my MacBook Pro, because I have discovered that, instead of looking down at a small screen at arms-length, my neck gets less sore, and I can work for longer stretches, looking up and ahead at a large, clear, ultra-high-definition screen hovering in the space over my desk, which is designed to appear as if you were looking at it from about 1.8 metres/6 feet away from my eyes:

Focal distance in the context of VR headsets refers to the distance at which the lenses allow your eyes to focus comfortably. In the case of the Apple Vision Pro, the actual focal distance is set around six feet.

This means that, regardless of the virtual distance of an object in the digital space, your eyes will focus as if that object were six feet away.

Also, when I upgraded my AVP from the first edition (with the M2 graphics processing chip) to the refreshed model (which contains a top-of-the-line M5 chip), I noticed that the eyestrain I used to experience after about an hour and a half while wearing the unit has completely disappeared. Hooray! And the new dual-strap knit band fits much more comfortably on my big fat head. Aside from the occasional neck-wrenching mishap, the Apple Vision Pro is worth every single penny I have spent on it. And I will be first in line to purchase the next edition of this wonderful headset. As I said before, I am all in.

Thankfully, I have finally received the final report from the Ergonomics Office at my university, with a detailed shopping list of recommended equipment to purchase. Like many of my younger work colleagues, I will be getting an adjustable-height sit/stand desk, risers to place my MacBook Pro and my brand-new Dell Windows notebook at the proper eye height, new desktop monitor holders and keyboard trays, etc. I am also learning (with the help of my ergonomist and my physiotherapist), how to take regular breaks, to stretch, walk around the office, and do some neck, shoulder, chest, and upper-back strengthening exercises.

The good news is that, because of all these changes, I am now in less frequent pain than I was a few months ago. But it has come at a cost. You see, I need to save what I like to call my “good neck” hours for my paying job as an academic librarian, which means that I have has to cut back significantly on my extracurricular, after-hours activities that used to require me to spend similarly long stretches of time sitting in front of a desktop computer at home.

One of those activities that I have had to cut back on is, unsurprisingly, my beloved virtual world of Second Life. Trying to navigate my small army of avatars and alts through all the Advent calendars and Christmas gifts in December just about did me in last month, and I have decided that my body is telling me that I desperately need to rebalance my real life/Second Life ratio a little bit, and spend more time in (gasp!) the real world. 😜

Speaking of the real world, I have maintained my boycott of mainstream social media platforms, in order to continue to focus on my good mental and emotional health. And for the same reason, I am not really paying attention to the traditional news media right now, either; if I have zero personal control over it, I simply don’t want to know. Every so often, my eyes hover over a newspaper headline at the supermarket checkout line with the latest story about Trump and Greenland, I grimace and roll my eyes, and I promptly move on with my day, focusing on those things I do have some control over (like my job, my friends, my community, and my obsessive little hobbies like Second Life). I have found that, simply by avoiding toxic social media and if-it-bleeds-it-leads news media and the doomscrolling both trigger, I have never been in a better headspace overall, and I intend to continue this approach moving forward into what appears to be yet another year of batshit craziness, train wrecks, and dumpster fires.

Trump who? Greenland what?? Don’t care, not my circus, not my monkeys.

I find I don’t miss Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter/X/whatever the fuck Apartheid Clyde is calling it this week, at all, and I spend precious little time on Mastodon, Bluesky, and Substack (although I do check the latter from time to time, mostly for AI/GenAI news). The only social media spots I pop into now are selected subreddits on Reddit (like r/AppleVisionPro and r/VisionPro), Primfeed (think Twitter/X, but only by and about Second Life), and now Tumblr (for the wonderfully creative Heated Rivalry fan art, memes, and fan-edited music videos using clips from the TV show). Even a couple of Discord servers devoted to Heated Rivalry have popped up, where fans share fanfic recommendations! It lifts my spirit and makes me happy.

For the past four weeks, ever since my SL friend first told me about Heated Rivalry and suggested I watch the show, I have been riding a wave of feel-good hormones like serotonin and oxytocin from the Crave TV series about a hidden love affair between two professional-league hockey players (I wrote about it here). And I am not the only one feeling that heady rush after watching the show! Many commenters in posts on the r/HeatedRivalry subreddit talk about the impact the show has had on them, and many have watched the entire TV series multiple times. The best and most concise summary of this phenomenon (which one joker suggested we call “the Heated Rivalry Mass Psychosis Event” 😂) is that watching the show makes you feel as though you are falling in love. There are many Reddit and Tumble posts from people who, like me, feel that the show has given them an important insight on their lives and how they are living them.

The following Reddit post is one example I saved because I could relate to it so much:

One Heated Rivalry fan’s emotional response to the show. I could 100% relate to this person saying that they had cut themselves off from dating, romance, and intimacy, because watching the TV show made me realize the exact same thing about myself. I could share with you dozens of other examples from Tumblr and Reddit about how the show has impacted viewers. This show has genuinely struck a chord with many people in the LGBTQIA+ community (and probably in the straight world, too).

And—just as I had with the movie Brokeback Mountain, almost exactly 20 years ago—After watching the Heated Rivalry television series, I bought and read books 2 and 6 of Nova Scotia author Rachel Reid’s book series Game Changers (the original source material for season 1 and the already-greenlit season 2 of Heated Rivalry), and then dove head-first into the Heated Rivalry/Game Changers-inspired fan fiction posted to Archive of Our Own (AO3 for short). Here’s a link to AO3 of HR/GC fan fiction, sorted in descending order by kudos (fan likes). WARNING: please note that many of these fanfics have an adult content warning for explicit gay sex scenes! One of the ironic things I find about explicit gay fan fiction (also called slash fiction) is that it is primarily written by, and read by, an audience that is predominantly straight women (although, of course, it also has many fans among the LGBTQIA+ community).

Connor Storrie (left) plays Ilya Rozanov and Hudson Willaims plays Shane Hollander in the surprise hit Crave TV series Heated RIvalry (showing on HBO Max in the U.S.)

Yesterday, my hometown newspaper, the Free Press, devoted a full two-page spread about how Heated Rivalry has become a major pop-culture moment, with ripples spreading out far beyond the queer community and fan fiction writers. I had to laugh when I read a column (original; archived version if you hit a paywall) where three FP reporters were discussing their squeamishness about watching the gay sex scenes in Heated Rivalry. Straight people clutching their pearls over depictions of gay sex in mainstream media are just so funny to me.

I mean, c’mon, people. For God’s sake, if you’ve ever watched Bridgerton, there’s just as much (non-genital but ass-showing) nudity and (non-X-rated) sex happening there, and nobody needs to fetch their smelling salts for that! We do the exact same things in bed that you do, straight people (and no, on second thought, I am NOT gonna spell it out for you here). 😉 Please get OVER yourself.

Okay, end of rant…switching to other topics.

I have two things coming up that I wanted to share with you, my faithful blog readers. First, I have been honoured to be asked to be one of the keynote speakers at the 2026 Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference, taking place in the virtual world of Second Life March 19-21, 2026. Of course, I said yes! I haven’t picked a topic or even a presentation title yet, but expect an announcement soon-ish.

Second, although it is not official official (and I really should wait until I get the official letter from university administration, which I was told should happen about the end of March), the University of Manitoba Libraries has approved my application to take a one-year Research and Study Leave (at full salary) to start later this year, where I am relieved of my regular academic librarian duties, and can work on a special project. Academic librarians at the University of Manitoba are members of the faculty union, and just like the the professors, we have the right (and the opportunity) to pursue research. Again, more details later. I’ve only mentioned this to a couple of people so far, but I think I can share that much detail at this time.

So 2026 is going to be a very interesting year for me, on several fronts! Heated Rivalry has inspired me to make some significant choices and changes already (some of which you will hear about, and others you won’t). Wish me luck!

Heated Rivalry is Brokeback Mountain All Over Again (and How Coming Out Applies to Virtual Worlds, Social VR, and Other Forms of the Metaverse)

Have you read? Crash Landing (and Showing Off My Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov Second Life Avatars)

WARNING: This, my final post for 2025, is a long, meandering, and sometimes painfully personal blogpost. Consider yourself forewarned! 😉

Have you read this 2017 blogpost? Sex and Gender Issues in Virtual Worlds: “The male/female dichotomy was viewed as binary and the technology (literally) codified that concept.”

Top picture: Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar and Jake Gyllenhaal as Jack Twist in the movie Brokeback Mountain. Bottom picture: Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov in the TV series Heated Rivalry (based on the novel of the same name, from the Game Changer series of novels written by Rachel Reid)

According to Google, the movie Brokeback Mountain was released in Canadian theatres on December 23rd, 2005, almost exactly 20 years ago from today, as I write this blogpost:

I did not go into the movie theatre to see Brokeback Mountain until 2006, accompanied by a couple of gay friends. At the time, I was aged 42, and still somewhat new to being an out, gay man—at least, compared to those who came out in their teens and twenties. I went in cracking jokes, but by the end of that movie, I was sobbing in my theatre seat. Brokeback Mountain touched me, moved me, and spoke to me in a way few other movies ever have. (I later bought it in DVD, but I still cannot bear to rewatch it, even twenty years later. At times, I felt as though I was suffocating while watching Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar navigate a clandestine gay relationship in rural Wyoming over the decades from the 1960s to the 1980s.)

You see, I grew up following the dictates and expectations of my family and my church, and I married a woman I knew from my Lutheran church youth group when I was 24 and still a virgin. We lived through a disastrous two-year marriage in Toronto, until we separated. I came home to Winnipeg, landed a job with the University of Manitoba, and continued to suppress my sexuality by throwing myself into my work, until I experienced my first serious job burnout, and landed up in psych ward for treatment of clinical depression.

Afterward, with the help of regular talk therapy with a psychiatrist, I finally faced the truth that I was gay, coming out to myself first, and then coming out to my friends and family in my early thirties. I had had what so many people in my age group experienced—a truly wrenching coming out experience, where I felt that something was wrong with me, that I had something shameful to hide. Watching Brokeback Mountain brought all that back to me, to work through again, perhaps on a deeper level the second time. Great art has that ability to awaken feelings inside of you that you never knew you had. (Brokeback Mountain should have won best picture at the 2006 Oscars, instead of Crash, and you absolutely cannot convince me otherwise.)

Fan Fiction: stories involving popular fictional characters that are written by fans and often posted on the Internet (called also fanfic).

Slash Fiction: is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex (also known as slashfic).

Brokeback Mountain ignited an absolute firestorm of fan fiction and, of course, the characters of Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar were tailor-made for slash fiction writers and readers (ironically, many of whom were straight white women). The slashfic varied in quality from transcendent to abysmal, but the most popular stories (often posted to Livejournal, and running to dozens of chapters, even full-length novels at times) had thousands of passionate readers leaving comments, sparking long discussions.

During 2006 and 2007, before I had ever heard of a virtual world called Second Life, I dove deeply into the Brokeback Mountain fanfic community. While I was tempted to write my own slashfic, I knew that I could not compete against so many amazing, beautiful stories I had read on Livejournal—stories that brought me to both chills and tears at times. Instead, armed with plentiful screen captures of movie stills, and a rudimentary knowledge of PhotoShop, I turned my hand to creating tribute images (sometimes serious, sometimes funny). Below is one example; you can read this 2019 blogpost to see the rest.

Yes, I was obsessed. So, shortly after I first discovered Second Life (in a story I recount here), I found a service in SL that generated a classic system (i.e. non-mesh) avatar skin based on a single selfie, a full front-facing head shot. You can probably guess what happened next, right?…

Yep. I fed the best photos of actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger that I could find on the internet into this SL service to create Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar avatars for role-play purposes! The results were pretty poor compared to modern, fully-mesh Second Life avatars, but more than sufficient for my purposes. Eventually, I decided to delete my Jack and Ennis avatars, once the fanfic fever had passed, and I had taken sufficient amusing pictures, and engaged in some Brokeback Mountain role play with other Second Life users (one memorable highlight was encountering a French-speaking group of Brokeback fans who threw Jack and Ennis the wedding they never could have in the movie!). I am sure that I still have the pictures from that crazy event tucked away somewhere, but I can’t be bothered to dig through all my hard drives to find them and post them here. Just use your imagination; I sure did. 😉

I have often written before on this blog about how Second Life (and other metaverse platforms) tend to be havens for LGBTQIA+ people, particularly for those who have not completely come out of the closet as queer people, for personal safety or for other reasons. This is especially true in an era where trans people’s rights are being attacked in particular. Here are links to a few blog posts I have written in the past:

One of the interesting aspects of Second Life (and indeed, most virtual worlds, even games like Fortnite) is that your world (or game) persona can be completely divorced from who you are in real life. You play under a name that is different from your own, and often you choose a look for your avatar that is utterly different from how you look in real life. In Second Life, most players maintain a strict separation between SL (Second Life) and RL (real life), where the people you play with online never get to know aspects of who you are in reality: where you live, what you look like, what you do for a living, etc.

So “coming out” has multiple meanings in the metaverse. It’s not just about embracing your sexuality and whom you’re attracted to, and whom you fall in love with; it can also be about sharing aspects of your real life with people who only know you virtually, as avatars. Many lasting friendships and relationships have had their unlikely but powerful start in Second Life (or some other virtual world or game), as players slowly get to know each other, first only via words between avatars, then perhaps actually meeting up in person. In fact, there is a whole 12-video YouTube series by Draxtor Despres titled Love Made in Second Life, where Drax profiles couples who first met each other in Second Life, and went on to have real-life relationships!

In fact, I first “met” Drax (Bernhard Drax in real life, who lives in Germany) when he and I were both part of the social VR platform Sansar, and participated in his regular Sunday morning explorations of various worlds built there, along with many other people. But although we have had many conversations, and each know who we are in real life, we’ve never met in person, face-to-face. Sansar was just one of those places where it was not unusual for players to “come out” to each other, and reveal the real person behind the avatar, unlike Second Life, where it is still relatively uncommon.

In fact, I very carefully kept SL and RL separate for most of the first, early years when I played, only gradually beginning to associate certain avatars (like my main one, Vanity Fair), with the real-life Ryan Schultz after starting to write about Second Life on this blog. Is it a risk? Well, yes, of course; coming out always involves some element of risk. But by a certain point, I decided that it didn’t make sense for me, as a metaverse blogger writing under my own name, to disassociate myself from many of the avatars I used to explore (and report on) those same virtual worlds and social VR platforms. In some cases, on some platforms (e.g. Sansar), I even took the same avatar name, Ryan Schultz, if it was available.

And so it was, that my Second Life freebie fashionista friend and partner in crime, whom I only know by their avatar name, Dreamer Pixelmaid, messaged me via Discord and asked me if I had watched Heated Rivalry yet. I had not. (Tonight I am finishing my second rewatch. I am hooked.) Dreamer is one of those people where I actually know little about their real life—and I am okay with that! Dreamer and I keep running into each other at Pride events in Second Life (so I assume they are a aprt of the LGBTQIA+ community as well), so I was not too surprised when they reached out to me about Heated Rivalry.

It turns out that Dreamer and I not only have a shared interest in ferreting out fabulous Second Life freebies and bargains (something we both happen to be very good at!); we also shared an interest in same-sex romance fan fiction! Soon we were exchanging links to YouTube videos, Tumblr posts, and podcast links, all to do with the outsized reaction which a small Canadian TV show about a gay romance in the professional hockey world (actually, not one but two such romances) was causing, both among the gays and the straights. Dreamer shared the following powerful fan-created music video with me, with a new-to-me song that I have been listening to on repeat:

By the way, the song used in this fan-edited video is a remix/cover song made with the assistance of AI, and it is so good that it actually gives me brain/body chills! This is a first for me: an AI-assisted song that I actually like to listen to, over and over again! Because this cover will be hard to find, here’s the link to the original posted to YouTube by the remixer, YZRmusic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I43A6HHF8Vw). Even if you don’t watch the video, go and listen to this cover version, it is AMAZING!!

I cannot help but compare and contrast what is happening now with Heated Rivalry with what happened with Brokeback Mountain 20 years ago. Both were stories about a secret same-sex relationship developing over time in an unlikely and unfriendly place: 1960s Wyoming for BM and contemporary professional hockey for HR.

But what is different is this: the ripples from Brokeback Mountain were isolated to the queer and slash/fanfic communities, and the movie became the punchline to a joke in the rest of the world, and in much of the mainstream media at the time. But I don’t see that happening with Heated Rivalry; if anything, it seems to be getting some attention from the straight community, as well as the LGBTQIA+ folk and the fanfic/slashfic writers. Even straight hockey podcasters are watching the series and commenting on it.* The ripples seem to be stronger, and they are going out further.

Another difference is that Brokeback Mountain ultimately ended in heartbreak, whereas Heated Rivalry ends on a much more hopeful note (SPOILER ALERT: even though the two hockey players are still in the closet, at least they are no longer lying to themselves and each other, they have a plan for the future where they can be together, and they have the full support of one player’s parents).

The show, in fact, has been so successful that a second season has already been greenlit by Crave/CTV, based on a second, already-written follow-up novel about the further relationship between these two hockey players. So yay, we are getting more Canadian-funded ice hockey yaoi! 🎉🏳️‍🌈🏒

As usual, it’s taken me a long time to get to the point, so here it is.

When you come down to it, virtual worlds, social VR, and other forms of the metaverse are all about identity and relationships: who you are on the inside, how you present yourself on the outside, and how you reconcile any tension between the two; whom you choose to be friends with and why, whom you choose to love, and why you love them; and how you navigate the network of relationships around you, both virtual and real. Revealing any of these things to another person (either virtual avatar or flesh-and-blood human being powering that avatar), is a form of coming out, where you might risk rejection—but also, risk gaining a deeper connection, possibly lifelong. Life’s too short. Take that chance.

Twenty years ago, Brokeback Mountain reinforced in me the pain and despair of a closeted life and its soul-killing compromises. Tonight, New Year’s Eve, Heated Rivalry teaches me that it is never too late to find deep, meaningful friendships and yes, perhaps even romantic love! It was a message which I needed to hear. I am no longer willing to cut down my life to fit other people’s comfort levels. In fact, it wasn’t until I finished watching the series that I realized that I had even been doing so, and to what extent. (Again, great art makes you realize things about yourself.)

I am going to ask all of you reading these words, my final words to you in 2025, to sit down and watch all six episodes of Heated Rivalry, on whatever television station in your country carries it (Crave here in Canada; HBO Max in the USA, etc.). It’s even more important that you do it if you’re heterosexual, and don’t consider yourself part of the LGBTQIA+ community to which I proudly belong. In particular, episodes 5 and 6 might just be some of the best television ever made, in my opinion (and yes, I am heavily biased!)

If you’re straight, just think of it as a homework assignment. I want it to spark conversations with your friends and family about how the need for love and belonging is universal, regardless of the gender and sexual orientation of the lovers; what it means to be LGBTQIA+ in a still sometimes-unfriendly society; and what it means to navigate that coming-out process, both internal and external.

Have a happy new year! See you in 2026.

Sorry, but you’ll only get the joke if you’ve watched season one of the hit Crave/HBO Max television series Heated Rivalry (if you know, you know).

With many thanks to Dreamer Pixelmaid for introducing me to my new favourite TV show! One more fan-edited music video featuring scenes from Heated Rivalry:

UPDATE Jan. 9th, 2026: Here’s another beautiful fan-edited music video, featuring clips from Heated Rilvary‘s two same-sex romances set to a song from the musical Hamilton:

*UPDATE January 26th, 2026: Well, recent events have have had me reconsider the motivations of at least one of the straight hockey podcasters who had so thoroughly loved the show—at least, publicly. The podcast in question, Empty Netters (and no, I am no longer going to link to it; you can find it easily enough on YouTube if you search), had seen its viewership soar with its much-talked-about reviews of Heated Rivalry, and the hosts were held up as examples of hockey-bro allyship.

However, reporter Cyd Ziegler of the Outsports website broke the story on Jan. 22 that Dan Powers, one of the hosts of Empty Netters, was saying one thing in his podcast episodes, but another in his private texts:

Former hockey players and brothers Dan and Chris Powers have drawn widespread media and fan attention for their slavish praise of the show “Heated Rivalry” on their podcast “Empty Netters.” 

The podcasters have become the faces of straight men loving this show about gay hockey players falling in love. Just this week, Vulture kicked off its article about watching straight men watch “Heated Rivalry” featuring the Empty Netters. Rolling Stone followed suit.

Yet in a series of text messages — sent to multiple recipients and seen by Outsports — one of the podcast hosts, Dan Powers, was highly critical of the show while at the same time the podcast, and Dan personally, were publicly effusive in their praise.

“I think these losers who made this show are cowards,” Dan wrote of “Heated Rivalry” in one text message Outsports has seen, bemoaning the fact that the producers are “Canadian for crying out loud.” 

Then: “This is the trash they make because it panders, it’s provocative, and it checks inclusivity boxes.”

Amid the ensuing uproar, Empty Netters released a video response, to which Outsports referred to in a Jan. 26th article:

In his first public comments since an Outsports story revealed he sent highly critical private texts about the gay hockey TV show “Heated Rivalry” while lavishly praising it publicly, “Empty Netters” podcast co-host Dan Powers contended that he had not seen the show when he sent negative text messages calling the show “trash” and the creators “losers” and “cowards.” 

His response came in a video published by the “Empty Netters” late Thursday, Jan. 22.

“The timeline implied in this article is completely false and inaccurate, and it suggests that we were watching this show, sending messages like this while at the same time reviewing it,” Powers — a former hockey player who hosts the show with his brother Chris — said in the video…

…Outsports would not have published its original story if our reporting had been based on a single source. The language in the text messages shared by Outsports reflects only some of the messages Powers sent to others, and texts received by Outsports from other sources go beyond the Dec. 2 date Powers revealed, aligning with the timeline of their published videos.

Outsports has also communicated with other sources privy to comments Powers has made in conversations about the show, who claim they were made after the publication of some of their “Heated Rivalry” review videos, which reveal a very different view.

The seeming discrepancy in Powers’ public versus private views of the show is what spurred Outsports to pursue the story, especially given the context: Hockey has a long history of homophobia and heterosexist culture. These are among the reasons there has never been an out gay player in the NHL, active or retired, making it a lone outlier among the major North American men’s pro team sports…

…Outsports stands by its story.

The top-trending comments on the Empty Netters Jan. 22nd video speak for themselves (yes, I know, it’s too small to read in the image, so I also copied them in the quote below):

This just speaks to the core conflict of Heated Rivalry ironically enough that there is so much unconscious homophobia in daily conversations that make it seem like such an impossible task to come out. (1,700 upvotes)

Hey so, the problem was entirely the language you used and not at all the context or timeframe in which you said it. Hope this helps! (173 upvotes)

Who gives a shit about the timeline? You still said those things. (94 upvotes)

Sadly, we still have a long, long way to go to eradicate homophobia from hockey. I am saddened, but not surprised. At this point, we will never know whether these men actually did truly enjoy the show, or just cynically jumped on the bandwagon, taking advantage of the immense popularity of Heated Rivalry to increase their podcast viewership—and earn some more money from that jump in traffic.

I leave you with another new fan-edited music video, ironically using the original version of the rock cover song above, but it’s so well done that I wanted to share it anyways.

UPDATE Feb. 8th, 2026: One more wonderful fan-made Heated Rivalry music video, this one set to Ben Platt’s song Come Back (the creator writes “Come Back by Ben Platt is for the cottage in ways I could only attempt to convey.”):

UPDATE Feb. 13th, 2026: And another one! This is one I found on Tumblr, set to part of the song When He Sees Me from the musical Waitress:

UPDATE Feb. 14th, 2026: Aaaand another one! This fan edit video used the P!nk song True Love. and frankly, the lyrics to this song fit the Heated Rivalry storyline just so perfectly!

From Her to ME: A Gender-Affirming Surgery Fundraiser in Second Life, Nov. 22nd to Dec. 22nd, 2021

A memorial to those transgender people we have lost this year, at the From Her To ME event

Metaverse platforms are natural homes to transmen, transwomen, the non-binary, and the gender fluid, where you have the ability to choose how you are seen by other avatars. Many trans people take the first steps of their journey in a virtual world.

But while virtual worlds can be a haven to transgender people, they are not perfect, either. In November 2017, I wrote an extensive blogpost about how many virtual worlds and social VR platforms still tend to codify the male/female dichotomy as a hardset binary rather than a fluid concept. Still, many people who want to present as a different gender from the one they were assigned at birth seek out metaverse platforms where they can express themselves freely, without judgement or harassment, and where they can help build vibrant, diverse communities.

While I was in the Belle Epoque store in Second Life, doing their 6th anniversary hunt (see this blogpost for a view of some of the many lovely hunt gifts), I came across a poster on the wall which intrigued me, so I teleported over to the event titled From Her to ME, which opens Nov. 22nd, 2021 and runs until Dec. 22nd, 2021:

The From Her to ME event in Second Life s a fund-raiser for Danny, a transgender man who is getting top surgery (here’s his GoFundMe page; he wants to raise US$6,000 to reach his goal).

Up here in Canada, chest masculinization surgery is usually covered by our universal healthcare, but the overall situation could still use improvement, according to CTV News:

Transgender Canadians and advocates are calling on the federal government to implement comprehensive trans and gender-affirming healthcare coverage across the country…

As it stands, all provinces and territories offer various levels of care for transgender and non-binary individuals. But often barriers crop up within the first instance of trying to access that care, an issue advocates say is due to a lack of training, forcing trans and non-binary people to become experts in their own healthcare.

But, while the situation in Canada is far from perfect, it is still far better than in the United States, where thousands of transgender Americans like Danny have to pay out of pocket for often-expensive gender-affirming surgeries, and sometimes resort to opening crowdfunding pages on GoFundMe and similar services in an effort to raise the necessary funds.

Hence, the From Her To ME event in Second Life, where dozens of Second Life content creators are donating all or part of their sales towards the cause. Here, for example, Belle Epoque is selling two complete fatpacks of former gacha prizes, and donating 100% toward’s Danny’s GoFundMe campaign:

There are also special auctions, where the winning bidder gets a rare or even one-of-a-kind item, like this purple fantasy outfit from Belle Epoque, with the proceeds again going to Danny to help fund his top surgery (the auctions start when the event opens on November 22nd, 2021).

Here is your taxi to the From Her To Me event, which starts Nov. 22nd, 2021 and runs through to Dec, 22nd, 2021. Why not pay a visit (they’re already open early, although all the vendor booths are not set up yet), and see if anything strikes your fancy? Your Linden dollars will be going to a good cause!

Social VR Research Alert: You Can Participate in a Clemson University Research Survey of LGBTQ+ Users of Social VR Platforms

Back in October of 2019, I wrote a blogpost about a research study being conducted by Clemson University on the use of social VR. Well, Clemson University’s Gaming and Mediated Experince (CU GAME) Lab, led by Dr. Guo Freeman in their School of Computing, is conducting a survey of LBGTQ+ (Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender, Queer, etc.) users of social VR platforms—including conducting interviews in AltspaceVR, Rec Room and VRChat, if you wish!

If you are a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and you are interested in being interviewed for 60 to 90 minutes about your experiences in social VR, particularly with respect to self-presentation and social support, then you are invited to fill out this online form (more information about the research study can be found here). The form states:

We are a group of academic researchers at Clemson University who are conducting a research project about social VR. We are interested in interviewing individuals who identify as LGBTQ+, and understanding their experiences.

No personally identifiable data will be asked or collected, but we’ll ask general demographics questions (age, location, race, etc). You do not have to answer any questions that you do not feel comfortable answering.

If you have experienced any social VR platforms / applications / environments (AltspaceVR, Rec Room, VRChat, etc.) and are willing to be interviewed, please fill out the form … and we will contact you for more details about this research project.

Here is the link for a document with more information about the study.

Feel free to email us at dacena@clemson.edu if you have any questions.

Interviews are to be scheduled during the month February, and can be done via telephone call, Discord (text or voice chat), Zoom (voice or video chat), or even on the social VR platforms AltspaceVR, Rec Room, or VRChat!

If you are interested, here is a the website (including a list of current research publications) by the Clemson University GAME Lab.

Are you a member of the LGBTQ community and use one or more social VR platforms? Clemson University wants to interview you! (Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash)