Is anyone else still at the cottage? Yeah, us too. The Heated Rivalry hype doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon, even if there’s a pretty long wait in store for season two.

After an initial small-time release as a Crave original in November, the super sexy queer ice hockey drama went supernova. It’s now on HBO, the home of The Last of Us and Severance, and reached UK shores in January, on Sky. 

Online, the response has been rampant. Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, who play the red hot rivals in question Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander, are now red hot Hollywood property too (in January, they presented at the Golden Globes). Even Robbie GK and François Arnaud, who play side characters (and lovers) Kip Grady and Scott Hunter, have become the internet’s fixation.

Now that season one has wrapped up, it’s time to start dreaming of season two. Here’s everything we know about Heated Rivalry’s upcoming second season.

When is Heated Rivalry season two coming out?

First things first, we know that a second season of Heated Rivalry is on the way; Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams confirmed as such with a sweet viral video back in December. In a recent interview with Deadline, HBO’s boss Casey Bloys appeared to confirm that season three has been greenlit, too.

As for when season two might arrive, there’s good and bad news. The good news is that we’re not talking A Euphoria or Stranger Things wait time. The bad news is that there will still be a wait, of roughly 18 months or so.

In December, the show’s director Jacob Tierney confirmed that season two won’t be released in 2026, as he hadn’t even started writing it at the time of season one dropping. He teased that while it would be released “a little bit later” it is “still going to be soon”.

In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Tierney put a time frame on season two, saying that fans can expect it in spring 2027.

“As much as I appreciate how rabid and interested people are at this point, the first season worked because I trusted my gut with this, and I’m going to do that again,” he said.

During an interview on Today, Storrie also suggested that season two will begin filming this summer, which was backed up by Bloys in his recent Deadline interview.

What will Heated Rivalry season two be about?

Heated Rivalry season one ended with Ilya and Shane turning their risqué post-rink rendezvous into something serious during a weekend at Shane’s cottage. While there, they confessed their love for one another, and began slowly referring to one another as their boyfriend. While at the cottage, Shane’s father also caught them kissing, leading to them coming out to Shane’s parents.

Heated Rivalry is the second book in author Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novel series, while season two of the show is set to focus on the sixth book: The Long Game.

Released in 2022, The Long Game returns to Shane and Ilya’s love story ten years later. While they are still together, the pro sportsmen are still publicly closeted.

“Ten years. That’s how long Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov have been seeing each other. How long they’ve been keeping their relationship a secret. From friends, from family… from the league,” reads an official synopsis of the book.

“If Shane wants to stay at the top of his game, what he and Ilya share has to remain secret. He loves Ilya, but what if going public ruins everything?”

It sounds like season two will tug even harder on the heartstrings than season one.

In December, Tierney told Entertainment Weekly that while it won’t “be a shock” for fans to know that season two will focus on Ilya and Shane, there will be other characters thrown into the mix.

In his Los Angeles Times interview, Tierney said that there will be “diversions” into other characters’ plots in season two.

“Just like you can’t tell the story without Scott Hunter, you can’t really tell the story without Troy Barrett,” he said.

Troy Barrett is a character in book five of Reid’s series, Role Model, who didn’t appear in season one of the show. He’s another pro hockey player with a queer crush, this time on social media manager, Harris Drover.

As far as Storrie is concerned, season two is an exciting prospect.

“I’m interested to play at the dynamic that develops in The Long Game, which is, now that we’ve established we’re together and we’re choosing this, what does that look like to consistently choose through new obstacles, new self-realizations?” he told Entertainment Weekly.

“We’re in the real leagues now, and it’s cool to watch these people that have been in this heightened reality for so long. The other shoe drops that deepens the love, but that also tests some of their personal limits.”

Who will star in Heated Rivalry season two?

Well, if Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander are there, Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams will be too.

It remains to be seen whether Kip and Scott, and thus Robbie GK and François Arnaud, will appear in season two. That said, there might have been a slight hint in season one: viewers saw a brief look at bartender Kyle Swift, played by Matthew Finlan, who has a crush on Kip in Reid’s 2020 book Common Goal. If he were to play a role in season two, it’s possible that Kip (and Robbie) will appear, too. Kyle also goes on to have a relationship with older hockey player Eric Bennett, though the role of Eric has not yet been cast.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly recently, Finlan said that he knows “just as much as you — or just as little, let’s put it that way” on whether he will appear in season two.

An actor is also yet to be cast in the role of Troy or Harris, if they were to appear in season two.

Tierney recently said that while there has certainly been interest in season two from high-profile Hollywood heavyweights, he’s keen to keep the talent Canadian.

“We need Canadian talent, and we love Canadian talent. It’s not a burden, but it’s also something we literally have to do to get our financing,” he said. Plus, casting relative unknowns was part of the charm of season one, and look how that turned out.

What else do we know about Heated Rivalry season two?

Specific details about Heated Rivalry season two are scarce, but there’s a few things we’ve learnt along the way. 

For example, Tierney is pretty keen for the second season to follow a similar format to season one, with just six episodes. “I would always rather tighten the belt than get loosey-goosey… I would rather be like, ‘Let’s see how much story we can pack into these episodes,’” he explained.

Tierney has also confirmed that he will return to direct season two, but will be bringing on a co-writer.

We also know that the second season, like the first, won’t be co-produced by HBO and so won’t be “HBO-ified”.

“This is obviously a very successful creative collaboration between Jacob and Crave. I see no reason why we would be involved creatively,” Bloys said recently.

While there’s still well over a year to wait until Heated Rivalry, we can expect a trickle of details to be announced over the coming months. Keep the bed warm at the cottage, boys.

Heated Rivalry is streaming now on HBO, Crave and NOW.

Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.

The post Everything we know about Heated Rivalry season 2 from release date to plot appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against Rady Children’s Health on 30 January over its decision to shutter its gender-affirming care program for patients under the age of 19.

Last month, Rady announced the closure of its Center for Gender Affirming Care, effective 6 February.

As per a statement to the East Bay Times, Rady is withdrawing “medical interventions, procedures and prescriptions”, but will maintain “counselling, mental health resources and care coordination”.

READ MORE: California passes ‘anti-snitch’ law to prevent the forced outing of LGBTQ+ students by teachers

Rady Children’s Health is comprised of Children’s Hospital of Orange County and Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego after announcing a merger between their parent companies in January 2025.

In the lawsuit, Bonta argues that Rady’s decision to end care violates conditions placed by the attorney general himself on the merger.

“Rady Children’s Health has chosen to violate its merger agreement and California law in response to the Trump Administration’s illegal campaign against providers of gender-affirming care,” said Bonta in a statement.

“Rady flagrantly disregarded its legal obligations by unilaterally deciding to preemptively comply with the Administration’s demands and cease medically necessary care for roughly 1,450 patients.

“We will not allow Rady to violate its obligations to its patients and the State.

“We will fight to uphold the law and ensure Californians can access gender-affirming care without facing unfair roadblocks.”

Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.

The post California Attorney General files lawsuit against youth health firm over gender-affirming care appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news.

Two major medical organisations have partially reversed their support for gender-affirming care for transgender youth – here’s what they did and didn’t say.

The American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) made partial changes to their recommendations on gender-affirming care for trans and non-binary youngsters.

In a statement reported by the New York Times on Wednesday (4 February), the AMA – the largest and only national association which represents nearly 200 medical speciality societies across the country – recommended that any gender-affirming surgeries be delayed until adulthood.

A day prior, the ASPS took a similar position, claiming that there was insufficient research on the benefits of gender-affirming surgeries, according to a literature review published alongside its statement.

The announcements mark a step back for LGBTQ+ rights across the US and internationally. Activists and campaign groups regularly cite the AMA’s and several other medical institution’s recommendations as evidence that appropriate gender-affirming surgeries are safe and effective.

Gender confirmation surgeries such as phalloplastys, hysterectomys, and baginoplastys, are virtually never performed on trans under-18s. Some teenagers aged 16 and above can undergo procedures like facial feminisation surgery (FFS) or a mastectomy, though these are incredibly rare.

Research has shown that providing appropriate healthcare for trans youngsters not only hugely improves their quality of life, but can reduce suicidality.

Right-wing groups and politicians have, over the past decade, falsely claimed gender-affirming surgeries are incredibly common by conflating them with gender-affirming care, which largely involved physically reversible, safe, and potentially life-saving puberty suppressants, known as puberty blockers.

In reality, cisgender youngsters are far more likely to undergo gender-affirming surgeries than their trans peers, according to research from Harvard.

Last week, a Republican lawmaker in Tennessee went so far as to call for the parents of trans children to be put to death for supporting gender-affirming care.

AMA continues to support puberty blockers, spokesperson says

The AMA said it had not, and did not plan to, U-turn on its support for puberty suppressants, but had instead decided that “surgical interventions in minors should be generally deferred to adulthood”.

Other major medical organisations, including the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP), told the New York Times that their recommendations remained consistent and did not include a “blanket recommendation for surgery for minors”.

Dr Andrew Racine, AAP’s president, said: “The AAP continues to hold to the principle that patients, their families, and their physicians – not politicians – should be the ones to make decisions together about what care is best for them.”

The Trump administration has bolstered attacks against gender-affirming care provisions across the US over the past year.

While many US states banned hospitals from providing often life-saving gender-affirming care years before Trump started his second term, the president has ramped up those attacks by targeting medical organisations in states where it is still legal.

Those attacks grew after the US Supreme Court ruled to uphold Tennessee’s gender-affirming care ban for trans youngsters, essentially setting a legal precedent that any active or future laws are lawful.

Nearly a quarter of all trans youth in the US live in a state that has banned gender-affirming care in some capacity, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

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The post Major medical orgs partially U-turn on trans surgeries – here’s what they said appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news.

The Liberal Democrat politician Carl Cashman has claimed that “80% of Liberal Democrat members are probably part of the LGBTQ community”.

Cashman, the “UK’s hottest politician”, is the leader of the Liberal Democrats group for Liverpool City Council and a Lib Dem councillor. As well as his political takes, Cashman has also won himself a loyal following of queer fans – mainly gay men – thanks to his shirtless gym pics on social media.

Speaking to Graeme Smith on the Boys! Boys! Boys! podcast – streaming now – Cashman sat down to discuss politics, the UK, and putting progressive values at the heart of his work. Asked why queer people who feel politically disillusioned should vote for the Lib Dems, the 34-year-old said it was because the party is made up of people in the queer community.

“80% of Liberal Democrat members – I’m not lying – 80% of Liberal Democrat members are probably part of the LGBTQ community,” Cashman said.

He continued: “Liberalism to me is about being able to be unashamedly yourself and not being judged for it. So, as long as you’re not impacting on someone else’s life, you should be able to live exactly the life that you want.

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“And the Lib Dems try to put policies in place that make that happen and allow people to live that sort of life.”

The sexuality and/or gender identity of party members is not information that is collected by the Liberal Democrats so it’s not currently possible to verify Cashman’s claim. However, anecdotally the party is known for being popular with LGBTQ+ people.

Elsewhere in the podcast, Cashman discussed his personal popularity with the LGBTQ+ community. The Liverpudlian, who is straight, said it was “up for debate” if he was the “most well-known Liberal Democrat” but made it clear he was happy to use his platform to help others.

“But if I can serve progressive politics and if I can serve liberalism by being myself and getting a message out through being myself, then I’m more than happy to do that.”

Cashman said his gym selfies prompted advice to “be careful” about what he posts on social media. Saying it was something he’d done since he “was 19, 20 years old”, he said: “I didn’t get into politics to change who I am as a person. And I wouldn’t expect anyone to do that. And this is the reason I’m a Liberal. I actually think that the best thing about the world is how different people are.”

As to whether he’s worried what other people will think about him sharing aspects of his personal life with people, including constituents, he said: “If people decide not to elect me as the leader of the council or whatever in the future, then that’s their decision. But I would rather them make that decision based on who I am as a person and not this robotic politician.”

Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.

The post ‘UK’s hottest politician’ claims 80 per cent of Lib Dems are ‘probably’ LGBTQ+ appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news.