Pro-Wrestler Mike Parrow Comes Out as Gay, Explains Setbacks from Gay Community

Florida-based professional wrestler Mike Parrow came out as gay in an interview with Gay Star News and opened up his struggles with coming out, especially in the gay community.

Parrow, based in Orlando, Fla., explained he decided to come out to friends and family four years ago after falling in love with a man who recently proposed to him. He also discusses growing up gay while attending Catholic school and having a religious family.

"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," he told Gay Star News. "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."

The 6'4" athlete who weighs 300 pounds explained he dated women to hide his sexuality.

"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," he said. "'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."

Parrow, 34, added that he hoped moving to Orlando would help him come out as gay but he said it made things 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," he told Gay Star News. "I learned you can get very much masculine shamed in the gay community as of late, which is really weird, but it happens."

The way he says he was treated only pushed him deeper into the closet, Parrow said. He explained that he eventually hit a rock bottom and contemplated taking his own life.

"I drank a lot of vodka and I got ready," he said. "Then I got a phone call from a friend." He said he didn't come out to his friend, but something they said made him "realize...this is not what I want to do. This is not who I am."

Parrow then got the help he needed and came out to his family.

"It's the most scared I've ever been in my life," he told Gay Star News about coming out to his parents. "I will jump off the top of a cage, go through barbed wire, fight someone in an alley - those things don't scare me. But that had me in tears. I was afraid. How do you say those words: 'I'm gay'? And you won't understand it unless you are a gay individual."

He said he's got a good support system and even his fellow wrestlers have been encouraging.

Meeting his now-fiance Morgan also helped him, Parrow said.

Click here to read the wrestler's full interview with Gay Star News. Below, check out highlights from Parrow's Instagram.