keep the door open three inches

As a reminder, he's suing Caroline Wallner, one of his accusers, for breaking her NDA. Not for libel. He's saying she shouldn't have told anyone about it, not that she lied.

He doesn't need the money. He's risking the Streisand effect. He is punishing Caroline, he's trying to intimidate other victims who have signed NDAs to scare them into continued silence.

He is no friend to women, to the LGBTQIA+ community, to anyone quite frankly unless he thinks they are of value to him.

I think there’s sort of this idea in the fandom that no one assumes Ilya is gay because he hooks up with women a lot but that Shane isn’t so lucky. But I just don’t think any NHL player would suggest that Shane is gay as anything more than a joke.

Shane is the best player in the league. He’s hockey personified. He can’t be gay in these people’s minds. He can’t be. It’s unfathomable. I mean, when Scott comes out in the books, Carter genuinely can’t believe it at first. We didn’t see Shane come out to the Voyageurs in the books, but I personally think they would have a similar reaction (but less kind)

And Shane in particular is likely reduced to a sexless robot in some of their minds because of anti Asian racism. I think his teammates would be reeling, I don’t think it’s ever crossed their minds as a real possibility that he’s been sucking dick for years. He’s Shane Hollander! He just hasn’t settled down because he’s married to hockey…right?

Like I’ve seen people say it’s an insult to Hayden’s intelligence when fic writers write him as having no clue that Shane is gay, that of course he would know, but…HOW? Literally how would he know? There is no framework for it, there is no precedent, being gay in men’s hockey is just not DONE. It’s a non starter

There’s a reason Hayden canonically connects the dots only after Shane comes out to him. Once he knows Shane likes men, yeah, it’s obvious. But before that? I just don’t think these men are considering it at all. They’ve either reduced Shane to a sexless hockey stick in their minds or they assume Shane is sleeping with women more than he is. And let’s be real, they’re much more concerned with how they’re gonna get off than how Shane is