I don't think I have the brain cells to articulate this fully but I kind of want to talk about the casual, unintentional biphobia of everyone in the Game Changers universe when it comes to Ilya.
The concept of bisexuality still seems like such a hard thing to grasp for both straights and queers. Bisexuality is either seen as a stepping stone towards admitting you're gay and accepting it (which is a real, lived experience of a lot of gay or lesbian people, no diminishing or denying that) or an impossibility altogether. Being straight being perceived as the default aside, even when someone is publicly known to date the same gender (or what appears to be that) everyone's mind just stops there and it doesn't even occur to them to go further than that and wonder if there's more than monosexuality there. Bisexuality requires extra steps and leaps of logic, almost, and for whatever reason it never seems plausible or like something to even consider. If someone's sexuality is questioned, it's always about whether they're one or the other, but never about if they're both. Even when celebrities perceived as straight exhibit 'queer' behaviours, people still would rather assume they're "hella gay, just hiding it" rather than anything else. At most, they get a "they're at least bisexual, if not".
When it comes to Ilya, both the larger, overwhelmingly cishet public of NHL fans as well as the queer characters Ilya has a personal connection to fall for this unknowingly and without any malicious intent on their parts (at least as far as the latter group is concerned). Because Ilya is very well known to have engaged in sexual relations with women, especially in a way that is undeniable and unable to be chalked up to faking it to keep up appearances, people don't really stop to think if there is anything more there. Even when there are signs.
Ilya shows up at Scott Hunter night and dances with gay men without showing discomfort. He shows up at the Kingfisher to hang out with Scott and Eric on the regular. He even brings Troy along. Everyone looks sideways at him for these actions and behaviours, finding it unexpected and strange, wondering what's up with that. Yet none of them ever stop to think, "Could it be he's one of us?"
Characters like Scott and Eric of all people should be familiar with the concept of being closeted and keeping things close to their chest for safety reasons, yet the protective wall of perceived heterosexuality works so well that their minds never consider that there might be something more behind the curtain. Not even Eric, who he himself is bisexual, ever stops to question things further despite the signs of something more going on between Ilya and Shane, all because of that projection of heterosexuality.
I don't know exactly where I'm going with this, what conclusion I'm trying to reach because my own feelings are all tangled up with this and I can't properly articulate them all. I don't know if this was a deliberate choice from Rachel or if her own internalised biphobia (because that's what it is, at the end of the day, even if it's a normalised way of thinking and not willfully malicious in nature) is shining through in these characters. But there's something about Ilya noticing things about every queer around him (aside from Scott), seeing the signs and the various attractions and pining going on and clocking everyone's tea instantaneously while his own identity remains hidden until he has to explicitly tell people, "I am more than what you perceive."
There is something about people looking at his public sexual history and thinking, "There is no way that guy could ever be gay. He's not like us. He's just an ally." I speak from experience when I say that stuff like that can feel very alienating and I feel like it's a very real thing that many bisexuals often feel Othered in the LGBT community.
This isn't me dragging Shane for anything but even he exhibits the kind of biphobic thinking that is so easy to fall into when he says things like, "You could have someone else. You could marry a woman. It would be easier. I don't have that choice." Of course, the narrative and the story quickly corrects that assumption and makes it clear that actually, no, Ilya couldn't and he doesn't have a choice either, because you don't choose who you love and who makes you happy. You can choose who you take home for the night when you're out at a bar, sure - whether to pick up a guy or a girl or whoever - and you can choose to limit yourself to trying to date only from the opposite gender pool for safety reasons (and make yourself miserable in the process by denying yourself access to your whole identity), but that doesn't guarantee happiness. It's just as likely that you'll spend your entire life searching for love and never find it because your future lies elsewhere, or you could settle for something that works but never quite fits.
Part of the reason why Ilya is so miserable is because he cannot be who he is and admit it to the people close to him, who matter to him outside of Shane and Co. It hurts that people cheer for Troy, as much as he is genuinely happy for him, because he is still denied his truth.
It is true that he cannot come out as bisexual because then his entire house of cards with Shane would collapse - but that is precisely yet another example of biphobia at work. When people assume Ilya is straight because he hasn't said otherwise, his relationship with Shane doesn't raise any eyebrows - their closeness, their work together at the foundation, Ilya's move to Ottawa. But as soon as Troy is told that Ilya isn't straight, suddenly dots are connecting. Suddenly it makes sense. Why? Because Ilya's public perception is aggressively heterosexual, hypersexual cis male and so it never occurs to anyone that his behaviour around Shane could be more than friendship or mutual respect. When JJ takes a look at Shane's relationship with Ilya with the knowledge of Shane being gay in mind, all the signs present lead his mind to conclude that Shane is experiencing an unrequited crush on a straight man. The possibility of anything being reciprocated on Ilya's side doesn't exist. How could he be attracted to men, after all? Look at all the women he's fucked in the past. Nevermind that he hasn't been publicly seen with anyone for years now.
Biphobia, paradoxically, works both for and against Ilya heartbreakingly well. It protects their secret so wonderfully because no one would ever guess Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander are together, but it also forces Ilya to stay in the closet in order to protect that secret even if he'd feel comfortable with sharing his sexuality with people like the Centaurs or Harris or the queer hockey men while still keeping his relationship with Shane hidden. He is denied community because being himself would mean outing what he and Shane are trying to protect.
I'm not throwing stones at anyone and this isn't a rant, just more of an observation and analysis from my own experiences and feelings surrounding Ilya's bisexuality. I find myself in a similar situation even if he and I are on opposites end of the spectrum - I have never been with anyone so I have no dating history to be used as reference but most people would either think I'm straight or a lesbian, with or without proof of leaning towards either; very few people would guess at bisexuality or even realise it's an option. So I felt the need to finally try to organise these observations and thoughts into an analysis of sorts, I guess.
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