Gay guys fighting

It’s gloriously outlandish, part of a group costume, and based on “GLOW,” the critically acclaimed Netflix show about lady wrestlers.

Even so, when Ohio Valley Wrestling, or OVW, announced its first openly-gay heavyweight champion, I spent a week in my feelings about actually attending a match. These are all invaluable characteristics for gay people.

There was the larger group experience of sharing a space and watching the same performance, but each person I looked at was experiencing the evening in a different way. “There are no rules.”

The siren-call of camp

The OVW locker room has rows of gray lockers, a wall with the giant OVW logo, and, at the time of my interview, an assortment of intriguing items: Atop a locker sat a crumpled sequined item, covered by a dangling red feather boa.

I saw a preschooler standing on a chair, waving a tiny replica of a heavyweight champion belt. When they sat me down to tell me I was going to win the belt — and it’s fixed, but you have to earn it — and when they said, ‘You’ve been a leader in the locker room and you deserve it,’ and it’s incredible to be a part of this start of a new legacy at a time when we’re literally going through a new legacy — OVW is brand new, with Al [Snow] taking over, there are some huge things about to happen.

“My new thing is hashtag kiss my belt, since my parents aren’t supportive, to be able to show ‘I’m doing stuff.

I think in his mind he was translating homosexuals as people who are weak and effeminate who don’t want to have battle and are trying to kill combat sports. It didn’t used to be that way, but that’s where it’s gone.”

Showmanship is certainly part of Amon’s success as a character.

When you say it teaches you how to fight do you mean that it can help you physically stand up for yourself?

I mean it on multiple levels.

Then as soon as Golden Gate Wrestling, the gay club started coaching there, it just disappeared.

Why have these interactions with you had such an effect on homophobic attitudes when other processes have failed? Some place the fact that they’re gay right up front, where others you have to dig a little bit further. Of course you have a special club where dudes wear spandex and roll around trying to dominate each other with their powerful thighs.

What I tell my kids is that I’m teaching them how to fight efficiently and appropriately and effectively so they’re not wasting time and energy fighting battles that they’re going to lose and never hurting someone more than is necessary. It was half gym locker room and half drag show dressing room.

When I mentioned how familiar this would look to a drag fan, Perry said, “You are not the first person to mention that!” The two art forms are similar, he agreed and scrolled through his phone to find a picture of himself posing with his championship belt along with Mykul Valentine, Leah Halston and Bianca Nicole, of PLAY Louisville fame.

“It’s not only about a fight; it’s about the drama of it and becoming someone else.

It’s really important to have the conversation in there, and then the reality is once you’ve done that it becomes such a non-issue.

Do straight people wrestle you differently if they know you’re gay?

I don’t know because everyone I’ve always wrestled with has known I was gay so I can’t compare it to anything, I’ve been very fortunate throughout my life, I came out in 1982 when I was a wrestling coach in Alaska in six different high schools.

Follow Wendy on Twitter: @WendyWends

For more gay news:

The Gay Sex Club Next to the Vatican is the Saddest Place on Earth

My Big Fat Gay Wedding