Lesbian Wrestling League (Series Book 1)

Product Information

WWE Raw Women’s champion Rhea Ripley showed Johns support, saying, “So proud! Love you,” in a reply to Johns’ coming out post. Prior to Ripley’s time with WWE, she and Johns regularly worked together, clashing over the Adelaide-based Riot City Wrestling Women’s championship, a title both held at one time. Morgan announced her retirement from wrestling after suffering a devastating injury in 2019, but she triumphantly returned to the ring just two years later.

Whether she’s stepping into the ring to dish out punishment or using her power as a well-suited official to do the same, Sonya Deville’s presence within WWE speaks to more than your average pro wrestling fan. Deville is a history maker, becoming the first out lesbian competitor in WWE history and one of the most forward-facing figures for the LGBTQ community to millions of WWE fans.Johns described the months-long process it took them to understand their identity as “some of the hardest of my life” but found “peace with myself” in putting his identity out in the open. “Telling people has been terrifying, but each time I was met with absolute love and support, which made me wonder why I was ever scared at all,” Johns said.

I’m just happy that I can be a voice for people that might be going through that part of their journey right now, or a different experience that might be difficult. I was always looking for that representation to kind of reassure me that it was OK to be who I was, and there wasn’t much of it when I was growing up. Especially in my small hometown. It just wasn’t that prominent to be open and out. These depictions were damaging in their ability to define lesbian identities to wrestling audiences, but they also masked the industry’s actual lesbian history. Names like Susan Green and Sandy Parker defied women’s wrestling gatekeepers like The Fabulous Moolah that did their best to outlaw LGBTQ wrestlers’ public expression of their identities within their stables. The country has made great strides with increasing awareness on the subject of homosexuality and transgender issues through PSAs and through advocacy groups educating the public. The movement by the LGBTQ community was centered on the desire not to be shunned for their differences but to be accepted as part of the fabric of society.I’d like to think that if Darren Young had debuted in WWE a few years later, things would have gone better for him. On the other hand, considering everything that still goes on there, it’s hard to be confident even in that. Young debuted in 2010 as part of Nexus, and publicly came out as gay in 2013. That made him the first WWE Superstar to come out while still actively wrestling. At the time, he was in the Prime Time Players tag team alongside Titus O’Neil. They briefly held the Tag Team Championship during a 2015 feud with the New Day, which was the only Title Darren held during his years in WWE.