#ir81

Shane exhaled loudly. “First of all, he told me we were doing good work with the Irina Foundation. He asked me to tell you that.” (Ilya: “Okay.”) “But he also, like, told me not to come out, maybe?” (Ilya sat all the way up. “I don’t understand.”) “He said he’s heard rumors about me being gay and basically that he’d like them to stay rumors.” (Ilya: “He said this?”) “Not exactly. Like I said, it was weird. The way he talks, it’s friendly and scary at the same time. I hated it.”

Ilya was starting to get angry. Mostly at Crowell. A little bit at Shane. “What did he say?”

“I think he doesn’t want another Scott Hunter. He doesn’t seem to be a fan of activism in hockey. Or anything that isn’t hockey in hockey, really.” (Ilya: “He is a fan of money in hockey.”) “He was talking about how great diversity is, and about the league’s LGBTQ initiatives, but also that he hates distractions from the game. The whole meeting felt like an indirect threat. Like, he wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to surprise anyone by coming out on social media or something.”

“Or kissing your boyfriend on TV.” “Right. I mean, obviously I’m not going to do either of those things.” “Obviously.” Ilya said it bitterly, but Shane didn’t seem to notice.

Shane told his partner that he got all but threatened not to come out, and Ilya’s reaction is to get angry at Crowell and Shane? What did Shane do? Shane didn’t do anything to warrant such a reaction. He’d been called into a meeting alone with the head of the league, who is extremely powerful, been all but threatened to not come out and stay quiet, and his partner’s reaction is anger directed to him?

The excerpt above is just in the beginning of the call, the only things that had been said was finally you called, at meeting, how was it, it was weird, how so, crowell said... idk he’s really intimidating, tell me one thing he said. Then the excerpt starts.

Where in this conversation can we find grounds for Ilya to direct anger at his partner? Because I can’t see it. Shane says he had this uncomfortable meeting, was basically told to not come out and the way Crowell talks is friendly and scary and he hated it. Ilya gets angry at both of them. And then, as the conversation continues and Shane says that obviously he’s not planning to come out any time soon - seeing as him and Ilya have their long-term plan to come out when they retire that they both agreed on and neither have said that they want to change it - and Ilya gets bitter. and maybe annoyed that Shane doesn’t pick up on it? that was what it felt like to me at least. which, even if they had discussed coming out earlier, Shane has a free pass for not picking up on Ilya’s tone being bitter after having been threatened by the person that can destroy their careers in an instant. Everyone gets a free pass after having just experienced that and is, seemingly, still in shock. And even if they had discussed coming out earlier and Shane is now hesitant to come out after, again, having just been threatened, that’s fine, Ilya shouldn’t be angry at him for that. Disappointed, yes, absolutely, but surely he can’t be angry at him.

I think this is the definition of “two bad bitches at the same damn time”