Sonya Deville Says LGBTQ Stories In WWE Need To Be Organic

Sonya Deville has reinvented herself in WWE. After pitching Vince McMahon a three-piece suit wearing authority figure character, she was quickly placed in storyline control as an authority figure in WWE. Sonya sees the exposure as a chance to continue her positive work to advance LGBT causes.

Deville is the first openly gay female wrestler in WWE. That responsibility isn’t something she takes lightly. As a pioneer for the community in the wrestling business, Sonya believes the company can take an effective approach to developing LGBT characters that best represent the community on-screen.

Just like in real life, she says incorporating LGBT wrestlers and characters into WWE storylines shouldn’t be forced. She told talkSPORT that she believes for those characters to work, they have to be organic. They shouldn’t be shoehorned in like so many other TV shows do just for the sake of inclusion.

“LGBTQ inclusion is something I’ve talked about for years. To incorporate that into WWE TV organically should happen because it’s just part of life. It’s like every TV show usually has a gay character because, statistically, there would be a gay character! I think it’s a natural thing. I’d like it to be really organic. I’d like it to be done right, of course, but I would like it to be organic so that if it was ever a part of my character or a layer of me, I would like it to be subtle and make sense.

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You don’t necessarily need a whole angle around it. We’ve had ideas in the past and things like that, but it just needs to be organic. If there’s a scene where one of the male superstars called his wife backstage and then one day, I could call my girlfriend backstage, you know what I mean? Just organic things like that which are a part of life, I don’t think anything needs to be forced.”

Sonya Deville believes that WWE’s approach to diversity with LGBT characters should be just like in real life. They shouldn’t be inserted just to do it. They should be people just doing their jobs and living their lives who happen to be a part of a certain community. Instead of overproducing and overcompensating simply to do the right thing, WWE should introduce diversity in a more natural manner.

Sonya Deville has been an advocate for LGBT issues since joining WWE. She was previously upset about a storyline that took a different approach with Mandy Rose. She’s hoping to see less of that and more realistic portrayals of the LGBT experience.

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