Pro wrestler Mike Parrow has spoken about his ‘coming out’ and trying conversion therapy
Professional wrestler Mike Parrow has spoken about coming out as a gay athlete.
Mike, who came out four years ago, spoke to ITV’s Good Morning Britain earlier today, where he noted at one point he tried to ‘cure’ his homosexuality using gay conversion therapy.
He said: “There’s no role models for athletes. Athletes tend to come out after they retire because of fear of maybe rejection, fear of different pay, fear of people just not accepting them for who they are. I have had the opposite. My career got better since I’ve came out because I’m now who I am.”
Of trying gay conversion therapy he said: “It was my choice, and I can’t tell you whether it works or doesn’t work, this is why it didn’t work for me and this is my opinion and why I left.
“When I first started to come out I had really negative experience. A lot of rejection. I thought, ‘Oh guys are going to love me’. They did not love me whatsoever. I had no idea how to talk to them, I had no idea about the community. The people that I was going after were going after me for a look rather than who I was. I’d never understood that because it’s not usually like that in the heterosexual world. You meet people at bars, you talk to them, personality… [you say] let’s go on a first date. The gay world is not like that all the time but I did not know that, so I had a lot of rejection at first. So I was like, listen, I don’t want to be gay.
“So I’m like, they [those offering gay conversion] gave me an opportunity, another option. And I’m very Catholic, so I searched out somewhere where I felt very comfortable. It was the first time in my life that I didn’t feel alone. It was the first time I heard people have the same feelings I did. Being there, I realised, I’m gay, this is not going to change. One of their premises is it’s a choice. It’s not a choice, you’re born this way. So right there, that’s a flawed philosophy.”
Speaking of his childhood, Mike said: “I’ve always known I was gay. When you come of age, when normal boys are liking girls, I never liked girls. I always knew that I liked men.
“I was Catholic, I went to Catholic school my whole life, my mum is very Catholic, there was never any talk of being gay. It just wasn’t brought up. In my home town we didn’t really have anybody that was gay and anything I saw on TV was nowhere close to who I was. So I did not want to be gay because everything that was represented was nowhere close to being me, so I kind of withheld that and I buried it.”
Now engaged, Mike spoke of how coming out has changed things.
He said: “My co-workers, the people that I work with in wrestling, have been nothing but supportive. They told me to embrace me. They said, ‘You’re not going to be good unless you are who you are’. We can’t have you not be you.”
Asked if he’s had any backlash in the wrestling community, Mike said:
“I won’t say they don’t want to wrestle me because I’m gay because I don’t know their opinion. I do know there’s been certain people in certain areas of the United States that aren’t usually fans of the character, of my perception, because it’s not really a character, it’s more of an extension of who I am. They don’t understand because it’s not the normal type of stereotype.”
