Arts & Entertainment
Pro wrestler Anthony Bowens comes out as gay
The athlete announced to the public that he was bisexual in 2017

Pro wrestler Anthony Bowens came out as bisexual in 2017 but the 28-year-old now says he identifies as gay.
Bowens came out for the second time in a YouTube video titled “COMING OUT… again” with his boyfriend Michael Pavano.
“The main purpose of this video is to tell everybody that I prefer to be labeled now as gay. There’s going to be ‘thank you, it’s great that you’re being open and honest and we love you’, there’s going to be the ‘well, we knew that’ and there’s going to be the ‘bi now gay later’ people,” Bowens says in the video.
He continued: “I really didn’t have
Bowens says at the time identifying as bisexual “was a very real thing” and that he chose the label because he didn’t know much about the LGBT community.
“As you get older, your viewpoints change. The way you look at the world changes, the way you look at yourself changes. Specifically more so in the past couple of months, this past year, I was looking at some old articles of mine because I was coming up with a new character for my wrestling career. And the articles kept labeling me as ‘bisexual’, and it was kind of annoying me that they had to continually put what I was, I couldn’t just be a professional wrestler, I was the ‘bisexual pro wrestler’ but I just wasn’t identifying with that term anymore,” Bowens says.
Bowens publicly came out as bisexual in 2017 after his teammates found a video Pavano posted on YouTube of the couple doing “The Laughing Challenge.”
Watch below.
Celebrate the start of Pride month at the Queer Magic Dance Party at the Black Cat on Saturday, June 6. Doors open at 9 p.m.
There will be pole performances and demonstrations, a free photo booth with glitter bar, a queer vendor market, tarot readings by Skye Marinda Tarot, a drag performance by Sapphica, and dancing to a blend of smooth R&B, Afrobeats, hip-hop and pop by Slammer & Saba. Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 (plus fees) in advance, purchased here.
Local queer journalists will celebrate Pride this weekend at the annual NLGJA-DC Pride Happy Hour event at Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.) on Saturday, June 6, 3-5 p.m. Admission is free.
Out & About
DC Front Runners Pride Run 5K set for Saturday
Annual event held at historic Congressional Cemetery
The 14th annual DC Front Runners’ Pride 5K run/walk is set for Saturday, June 6 at historic Congressional Cemetery. The race starts and ends at the cemetery (1801 E St., S.E.) and passes through scenic D.C., along the Anacostia River trail and the fields at RFK campus. Registration ends Friday at 11:59 p.m.
Runners can pick up their race packets on Saturday from 7-8:30 a.m. at Congressional Cemetery; the race begins at 9 a.m.
The fee to run the 5K in person is $65 ($35 for those under age 20). Proceeds benefit local LGBTQ nonprofits, including Thrive DC, Wanda Alston Foundation, Blade Foundation, Ainsley’s Angels, SMYAL, and Team DC. Visit DCFrontRunners.org for more information.
