Sonya Deville On Working With GLAAD, Creating Future LGBTQ Storylines in WWE

Nicknamed “The Pride Fighter”, Sonya Deville is breaking down barriers in the WWE whenever she shows up alongside her Fire and Desire tag team partner Mandy Rose. The first openly gay WWE wrestler, Sonya spoke with Allure recently about ensuring that she continues to push boundaries within the company. “I’ve been talking with GLAAD and WWE over the past two years and really have developed a great relationship between the three of us.” In making this connection, we’re a long way from the days that GLAAD was duped into supporting Billy and Chuck’s wedding.

While we’ve gotten photoshoots and parade floats so far, the obvious end goal for the relationship is a storyline on TV that includes queer themes. “I am a firm supporter and believer that it’s important to have that inclusion in our programming in the right, most appropriate, tasteful way.” Sonya continued. “By doing this, yeah, I would be putting myself out there and I would be almost like the guinea pig for this kind of revolution. But I am willing to do something like that to make a social change and to really pioneer this movement in the right direction. Somebody has to do it, right?”