Pro wrestler explains how sport helped him come out as bisexual after a lifetime of negativity
O’Shay Edwards in the ring (Screen capture via YouTube, Ring of Honour Wrestling)
Independent wrestler O’Shay Edwards has said that the sport helped him come out as bisexual.
Edwards opened up about his coming out journey in an interview with the Shining Wizards podcast.
“If it wasn’t for wrestling, I wouldn’t have (come out),” he said.
Before becoming a wrestler, Edwards said, he was a fireman for 15 years, and was previously a college football player “at every level”.
He said that he first knew he was bisexual when he was “like 18 or 19″.
He continued: “But it was 2003 or 2004 and there was no way I was going to come out in a football locker room. Are you kidding me? My career would have been done. Over. The times were different.”
When he began working for the fire department, the culture there wasn’t all that different.
“The fire department is full of type-A personalities and there were a few firemen at that time who were out and I saw the crap they were getting and everyone thought it was like a joke,” he explained.
“I was like, ‘Ain’t no way.’ I was gonna have to fight somebody. Somebody would have made the wrong joke and I would have to fight them, and I wasn’t going to have that.
“It’s not that I was ashamed, I was just like: ‘Man, this isn’t it.’ I lived in the south, I understand where I live and I read the room very well. It wasn’t the time.”
O'Shay Edwards is one of the people I hold most dear in the wrestling business. Welcomed me immediately, has always offered me brilliant advice, and his work is impeccable! #BigBadKaiju https://t.co/nt6kVCPBL9
— Commander Stephanie Sterling (@JimSterling) June 6, 2020
He continued: “It wasn’t until I got into wrestling and I started meeting everyone and being accepted for who I am. I was like: ‘If I’m going to do this, this is the time. This is it.’ It was great. I was met with an outpouring (of support). If anyone said anything negative, they sure as hell didn’t say it to my face.”
He’s not alone in coming out, with 16 wrestlers marking Pride Month this year by coming out as LGBT+.
