Stephanie McMahon Wants Top WWE Star to Play a Gay Character

[Brandon]

Darren Young made headlines in August 2013 when he came out as gay in a casual airport interview with TMZ, becoming the first openly gay active WWE Superstar. If you never came across the interview, though, you'd probably have no idea that Young is gay since his sexuality was never made apart of his character during his time with WWE.

While it's not known why WWE didn't portray Young's character as gay, Stephanie McMahon revealed two years ago that the organization was considering introducing LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) characters and themes to its weekly programming in the future.

"Throughout my life, I have grown up knowing gay [WWE] Superstars and executives," McMahon told NBC Out (a digital portal on the NBC News website targeted at the LGBT community) in an August 2016 interview.

"It's always been accepted, but now it's about getting that message out there."

McMahon added that WWE is committed to inclusive storytelling and said "when it makes sense ... absolutely we will integrate LGBT storylines into our programming."

WWE didn't have imminent plans to do so then, but McMahon said there will "absolutely" be an opportunity for an LGBT storyline in the "near future."

This could finally turn into a reality as behind-the-scenes, McMahon wants a WWE Superstar to portray a gay character and she has a specific person in mind.

She wants Finn Balor to play gay.

There is resistance to McMahon's idea from her own husband, Paul "Triple H" Levesque, who strongly disapproves it.

It's said that if Balor or a different WWE Superstar portrays a gay character, it wouldn’t be for laughs. The description of her idea of a gay character is "empowered."

Through its partnership with GLAAD, an LGBT media advocacy organization, WWE is prioritizing sensitivity with their creative writers.

"We've had GLAAD come in and speak to our entire writing team and give a whole tutorial on sensitivities, the right words, the wrong words, why those words matter," McMahon told NBC Out.

"In terms of any issues that require a degree of sensitivity in terms of how they’re being handled, we are always going to incorporate our partners, like GLAAD, to help us tell those stories the right way, because we do want to be sensitive to our audience, we want to be sensitive to the community and we want to make sure that we're telling the right messages in the right way."

Source

Can they save the role for EC3?

[Brandon]

No surprise Burke's fave is homophobic and doesn't want it to happen, though.

[Brandon]

Y'all just gon' let my thread flop?

[Mutant Couch]

Don't put Stephanie McMahon in the thread title if you don't want me to keep scrolling.


Anyway, I'm put off by the whole "play gay" thing. If they want a gay character, great, it can be done organically and they don't need to pat themselves on the back for it. Besides unless they're doing a relationship angle how do we know that 70% of the roster's characters are not already gay? This isn't 1999 they don't need to act like having a gay character is a novelty or something new. Tell this bitch to shut up, Burke.

[Tarry]

With the new rainbow flag Bálor Club shirt that has some of the profits going towards GLAAD, I really think they're going to have Finn win the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania and then either have him "come out" after the match or the next night on Raw.

[Tiarnán]

I agree with MC. Yeah they're characters but the lines are so blurred that I'd rather they employed or encouraged more openly gay performers. I just dont trust them to handle something like this properly. And it'll make Finn's activism feel cynical if it results in a storyline.