5 times pro wrestling has been LBGT positive

The history of pro wrestling and the LBGT community has been checkered, at best. Characters like Goldust and Gorgeous George mocked homosexuals, and, recently, Vince McMahon planned to turn James Ellsworth into a Transexual character until others in management convinced him otherwise.

Wrestling, like many forms of American entertainment, was originally intended for an almost exclusively white, hetero-normative audience. It wasn't until the early 1990s when a major promotion -- WCW -- finally crowned an African American champion. That champion was Ron Simmons.

Representation matters, and while Japanese and other nationalities were represented in the pro wrestling world, they were often reduced to stereotypes or villains. Shinsuke Nakamura is a great step forward in the way foreign wrestlers are portrayed.

But what about the LBGT community? They have been ridiculed the most of all. However, there has been a sea change in society, and pro wrestling has become more in tune with the cultural Zeitgeist. Here are five encouraging signs that things are getting better for the LGBT community.

#5 Sonya Deville and Darren Young

Even though the WWE has long employed homosexuals -- our next slide will touch on that --there has been an unwritten rule about the Superstar remaining closeted. With openly gay Superstars Darren Young and Sonya Deville, the WWE has proven a change to get with the times.

The fact that both Young and Deville are not using their sexuality as part of their in-ring persona does little to dilute this achievement by the WWE; after all, Finn Balor isn't really a demon, and The Undertaker isn't really dead.