Though Lastings Milledge has rejected numerous requests by CSTB become Best MySpace Friends Forever (guarding his friends list like highly coveted cultural capital, no doubt), I’m very pleased that Chris Kayon is more open-minded (or less discriminating, depending on your point of view).
Kanyon, an infrequent subject at CSTB, has a new blog entry in the wake of a contentious appearance on Howard Stern’s Sirius program.
There is a question/comment that keeps coming up that I want to clarify. It is about the timeline of my firing and coming out. I hope some reputable websites/newsletters print this to clear up the rumors, mistruths and propaganda that continue to surround this situation.
Although I officially came out of the closet as gay to the public in February and March of this year (2006), the process started way before that in 2001. The tragedy of Sept. 11 inspired me to start my coming out process because of the loneliness I felt on that day. Soon afterwards in Oct of 2001, I was injured. I thought it might be a good opportunity to take the time off and get some nationwide publicity while rehabbing my knee to come out of the closet nationally as the first ever ACTIVE Legit Openly Gay Wrestler in the US. And since my homosexuality was not a well kept secret within pro wrestling, I felt comfortable asking some wrestlers and some WWE management what they thought of the idea.
For those of you (like Ric Flair) who don’t think my sexual orientation was somewhat common knowledge in the locker room, ask Terry Taylor and/or Raven, who were the only two guys with enough balls (insert joke here) to ever ask me point blank if I was gay. The rumors were everywhere and I knew everyone was accusing me of being gay behind my back, but at least Terry and Raven had the guts to ask me to my face. I have total respect towards both of them for that. This all happened in WCW around 1999. Anyway, since it was not a big secret, I asked some wrestlers and some WWE management what they thought of the idea. Overall the response was positive, although some warned me Vince might not be cool with it. I tried to get a straight response from Vince but it never came….at least not verbally.
When I finally wrestled again on National TV on UPN on SmackDown, in my return match, Vince had me dress up like a known homosexual (Boy George), had me come out of a large wooden closet he had built in the middle of the ring (come out of the closet, so to speak), had his agent tell me to “sing like a faggot” and than had The Undertaker beat the shit out of me, including a chair shot to the head that was so brutal, they had to edit the camera angle for UPN so it wouldn’t appear so violent. That chairshot gave me the most severe concussion of my career and actually knocked me out. I wasn’t 100% sure if that was a message from Vince for me to NOT come out of the closet, so I continued to pursue the idea, hoping to get a verbal answer from Vince. Soon after this, I was fired….
Thus for those so-called “Internet journalists” who say my being gay couldn’t have been the reason for my firing based on the “fact” that I didn’t come out until after I was fired, maybe next time you should just pick up the phone and give me a call, and as always I would tell you how it is. Or you can just keep writing your propaganda, disregarding facts and sources, and continue to be bitter towards a business that the fans and I still love.