Anthony Bowens publicly came out as bisexual to his fans and the world earlier this year after a YouTube video of him and his boyfriend Michael Pavano accidentally outed him.
When the video surfaced, some of his peers in the wrestling industry learned of his sexuality - so Bowens made the decision to come out publicly on Facebook, as well as writing a personal essay for OutSports.
That was in March, and Bowens has now said in an interview that he expected personal backlash due to the low representation of LGBTQI+ people in his profession. However, fans' reactions to his personal announcement were actually quite positive.
"I woke up the next day, and my phone was just melting because of the notifications and how many people were sharing it, news outlets online picking [my story] up," Bowens said in an interview with Party Foul Radio with Pollo & Pearl. "I was getting messages from literally around the world thanking me. Saying I was an inspiration..."
Instead, he experienced backlash about the validity and existence of bisexuality in general.
"I thought there would be more negativity around the stigma of [a pro wrestler] being part of the LGBT community, but the negativity came more from people debating and getting in arguments over bisexuality, and what it means to be bi or gay, and whether you're hiding," he told the radio hosts.
Bowens explained that he saw an enormous amount of comments questioning whether bisexuality was even real, and many commenters making the assumption that he was actually gay, but was too scared to admit it.
He was extremely surprised by this show of biphobia, and confessed he did not realise that bisexual people faced such stigmatisation, even from within the LGBTQI+ community itself.
“You can date a dude or marry a dude and be with him the rest of your life, and that doesn’t change the attraction. The stimulation doesn’t change!” he said. “That’s the reason why it’s LGBTQ... The LGBTQ community comes in all shapes and sizes.”
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