One of the most infuriating narratives for me is the idea that the problem montreal had was with Shane dating his rival and not homophobia. I know this is supported by the narrative. i know Shane comes out to them, it goes okayish, but him being with Ilya is the thing that sends it crashing down. I can understand all of that and think it creates a narrative which is totally inconsistent with the experiences of queer people at best, and at worst creates a veil of comfort so it can sing the song of homophobia without really dealing with the issue.
This storyline is so often framed as ‘the REAL reason they can’t come out is because of the rivalry. We already solved homophobia!’ and it just makes me want to scream You Don’t Get It! Homophobia is not a binary yes/no switch and doesn’t get instantly solved upon coming out.
People are generally aware that pointing at a gay man and screaming a slur is socially frowned upon but they do become uncomfortable in little ways and search for excuses to justify that discomfort. Sometimes coming out can go well but the minute that you start actually doing gay things (like getting into a relationship) it meets a very different reaction. Sometimes people are comfortable with someone being gay in theory but not in practice and they go searching for reasons to justify their homophobia.
Anyways, so no I don’t believe in any world that the team’s reaction was only about Ilya and had nothing to do with homophobia. In fact, i think no matter who Shane dated there would have been hostility to the highest level manageable while remaining socially acceptable. Ilya being his rival gave them an out whether we want to acknowledge it or not. It opened the door to be hostile and point towards reasons other than homophobia as justification. Framing it as being about their rivalry because homophobia apparently just disappears after coming out just completely ignores the complexity of the issue and treats coming out as a singular conflict to be overcome in a narrative.
