Professional wrestler Mike Parrow has officially come out of the closet in an exclusive interview that he has done with Gay Star News.
Mike, who is based out of Orlando, Florida, made the decision to speak publicly about his sexuality although he came out to family and friends four years ago after he found love with the man who he most recently asked to be his husband.
During the interview, he speaks about his life in college and his decision to do pro-wrestling as opposed to going to law school. It was during his relocation to Florida where he started to struggle with his sexuality and how tough it was for him to talk about it.
"I’ve always known I’m gay. That was never a question in my mind. But growing up, I went to Catholic school my whole life. My mom’s a Sunday school teacher. I came from a small town in upstate New York. It didn’t have a flourishing gay community."
It got to a point where he started dating women in an effort to hide his true identity. "In the beginning, when you’re younger, it’s easy – you’re young. But the older I got, the harder it got for me to have any kind of emotional relationship with a woman. ‘I would find ways to end it. I’d be like, “Listen, I just don’t think you’re pretty.” And I was kind of mean to some women. It’s wrong. And I wish sometimes I could have that back."
He also spoke on how his move to Orlando was supposed to help him sexuality, but it just made it that much worse. "Gay men can be the meanest, cruelest people you’ve ever met in your life. I was “fat”, I was “ugly”, I’m a “closet case”, and at the time I was just looking to understand what’s going on. I learned you can get very much masculine shamed in the gay community as of late, which is really weird, but it happens." All of that just helped push him back into the closet as opposed to the opposite.
He then hit rock bottom, where at one point he contemplated suicide over people not really understanding who he truly was. ‘I drank a lot of vodka and I got ready. Then I got a phone call from a friend.’ Although he didn’t come out to the friend, something they said made Mike think again. ‘It made me realize: this is not what I want to do. This is not who I am.’
He then started seeking help, and once he started to get better, he experienced a chance encounter with his new fiancee Morgan (who he just proposed to prior to this interview going out), came out to his family, and has experienced nothing but support from everyone around him, even his fellow wrestlers for the most part.
You can check out the full story, which goes into detail about how he got to where he is now, here.