Sonya Deville Talks Being The First Openly Gay Woman In WWE
Sonya shares her story.
On the sixth season of WWE ‘Tough Enough’, Daria Berenato now known on WWE TV as Sonya Deville revealed to the world that she was gay. It was groundbreaking moment for Deville as it was the first time she openly spoke about her sexuality in front of the public and let everyone in. Fast forward three years later and Deville has been a part of NXT, RAW and is currently a member of the SmackDown Live roster where she is paired with her real-life and on-screen friend Mandy Rose.
Deville has become an advocate for the all who are afraid to openly express themselves because of the backlash they’ll receive or fear of their loved ones rejecting the thought and Sonya spoke to that while being interviewed by Sky Sports and stated that all she wants to do is encourage people to be themselves.
“Wow, I always get asked this question, and I don’t know how to answer it because I’m always like, ‘I guess I’m a role model’ but my goal with talking about sexuality publicly is just that the scared little girl that I was four years ago before I came out on WWE Tough Enough – little girl like that at home, or little boy can see me do it and be like, ‘Wow, well if she did it then maybe it’s okay that I do it’, and it’s just to encourage people to be themselves, and that equality for all, is what we should all want. Between race, religion, gender, sexuality, it doesn’t matter. It’s just… we’re all equal and we should treat each other as such and that’s just my message overall.” Sonya concluded.
Deville was a member of Team SmackDown at WWE’s Survivor Series pay-per-view and to read about how she fared in that bout, check out Fightful’s Survivor Series results article.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Sky Sports with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
