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A Moscow court blocked three piracy websites for carrying the gay hockey romance ‘Heated Rivalry,’ citing ‘images promoting nontraditional sexual relations,’ but the only image was the book’s cover

Source: Verstka

Moscow’s Cheryomushkinsky District Court has prohibited access to three pages on pirate websites that made American author Rachel Reid’s novel Heated Rivalry available online. The news outlet Verstka found the ruling in the court’s online case database.

The pages were hosted on BookPlaneta, Siteknig, and Libsafe. Notices on the BookPlaneta and Siteknig pages say the novel’s text was removed at the copyright holder’s request. The page for the book on Libsafe has been deleted entirely. The court ruling says the pages contained “images promoting nontraditional sexual relations.”

According to Verstka, the only image on the pages was the book’s cover, which shows two hockey players preparing to face off.

Reid’s novel, about a romance between two hockey players, was adapted into a popular series of the same name.

Russia’s publishing industry has faced a crisis in recent years as censorship has intensified: Publishers have pulled books from sale, avoided “dangerous” subjects, and redacted passages. After Russia’s Supreme Court designated the nonexistent “international LGBT movement” as extremist, queer literature became one of the riskiest categories for Russian publishers and booksellers. In 2025, employees of the publisher Popcorn Books were charged with participating in the activities of an “extremist organization” for distributing LGBT-themed books, including the bestselling novel Summer in a Pioneer Tie. They received suspended sentences.

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