Gay All Elite Wrestling (AEW) star Anthony Bowens has revealed that two other wrestlers helped him feel comfortable with expressing his true self.
Bowens came out in 2023, telling a packed arena that he and fellow wrestler Harley Cameron, were gay. The moment sparked a crowd chant of “he’s gay,” clips of which racked up millions of views online.
Now, in an interview with Jimmy V3, shared by Wrestling Inc, he has said it was joyous “to be able to represent the LGBTQ+ community every week because I felt I didn’t have much representation when I was growing up watching wrestling’.
He went on to say: “I mean, there [were] maybe one [or] two but it’s really cool to be able to live my dream and also have people relate to your story.”
Witnessing queer stars come out and continue to work without issue helped him to do the same.
“It’s been great working at AEW because I always feel free to be myself… one of the contributing factors to coming here in the first place was, when I was an extra, I noticed people like Sonny Kiss and Nyla Rose walking around not worrying about anything, judgment-free and being able to live their lives normally like everything should be. So, it’s a great environment to work in.”
Kiss is openly gay and uses both he and she pronouns, while Rose was the first openly trans wrestler to sign with a major American promotor and the first to win a top championship.
Previously, Bowens has said coming out changed his career for the better. He exclusively told PinkNews: “I think that was the first time in history anybody’s ever said, ‘I’m gay’ in a wrestling ring on television.”
Discussing the crowd’s reaction, he admitted that he had been a little apprehensive. “I wasn’t sure what the response would be, [I] expected a couple claps [and] didn’t think it would be too negative… [to] have an entire arena standing up, going nuts and chanting ‘he’s gay’ was incredible. It was a fun thing to do. Everyone in the building was enjoying it and it’s a moment people still bring up.”
Bowens was a grand marshal at this year’s Dallas Pride parade.
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