WWE and Homophobia: Still an Issue

This is not a booable action Photo Credit: WWE.com

Remember when Darren Young came out of the closet? Unless you've just come out of a prolonged coma, of course you have. WWE has done a terrific job of handling his individual case with aplomb that no one traditionally expects from them. Young's sexuality has not seeped into his character, and the only change has been a sly shift from rudo to tecnico. If the person is gay, then wouldn't having him be someone everyone, especially gay fans, can root for make sense? However, I can't freely heap praise on WWE here because old, ugly habits die hard with them as shown last night with the formal introduction of Ryback as the newest Paul Heyman guy.

The stage-top dual interview ended with Heyman planting a kiss on Ryback's cheek. In the real world, nothing curious exists about the nature of that display of affection. Gratitude is shown in many ways, and a kiss is certainly not a foreign way to show thanks and appreciation. However, same-sex kisses don't happen in WWE often, and when they do, the crowd is programmed to react to them a certain way. The rotten cherry pit on top of the shit sundae came after the commercial break, when they ran the replay and Jerry Lawler reacted in disgust.

The end to that segment is why Dave Meltzer's dismissive dipshit article about Young coming out where he tries to convince everyone that it was a non-issue rings so hollow. Young and Pat Patterson being accepted backstage in WWE is wholly irrelevant if the company continues to use homophobia-inviting tactics to get people to boo heels. I don't care if Young continues to be okay with that kind of tactic; it actively undoes every bit of good that he himself did by bravely coming out of the closet.

Championing gay rights out of character is well and good, but even in the post-kayfabe world, how good can implying men kissing other men is a sign of weakness in character in a business where bending reality is a huge part of what is going on? How can the YouTube and Facebook comments about how WWE allows Antonio Cesaro to get pinned by "a fag" stop when in character, homosexuality is a sign of weakness? The disconnect is real and harmful. Homophobia is not a non-issue within the company.

One could argue that the attitude is all on the fans, but what is the company doing to engender an atmosphere of change? The difference between a responsible company and a terrible one is how they respond to what fans in the audience may or may not react to. If you know you have homophobes in the crowd - let's face it, WWE wouldn't try to use a same-sex kiss to rile up heel heat for two men if they didn't know their crowd would react in a certain way - then the baseline behavior that you, as a company, should show is that sexuality is not an issue at all. They do not play up the fact that Young is gay; he's just another wrestler. Heyman is a heat magnet on his own, and any fault Ryback has at garnering heel reactions has not been his own. Not only is highlighting the kiss as "bad" bigoted, it's lazy.

Handling Darren Young in the best way possible was only one task WWE had in front of it on the path of attaining anything approaching a good attitude towards homosexuals in both their company and among their fans. Just because sexuality isn't an issue internally doesn't make it a non-issue if the company continues to play the strings of its more bigoted fans. All last night showed was that WWE disappointingly still has a long goddamn way to go.