Kiera Hogan Discusses New Impact Contract, Coming Out During Pride Month

– Impact Wrestling star Kiera Hogan spoke with Out Sports for a new interview discussing her new contract with Impact, coming out as LGBTQ during Pride Month and more. Highlights are below:

On signing her new contract with Impact: “It’s honestly great, I’m so glad to continue to be a part of the roster and to continue to be a part of the Impact family, because, honestly, that’s what it is. I honestly wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. It’s the best locker room I’ve been in. Both men and women, we all look out for each other. We all are very close with each other. I just feel like we’re such a close knit family that all want to do something really great with this platform that we’ve been given. I’m just so happy to be able to stay around and grow with the company. It’s just so crazy to think about me talking about the Knockouts division when I was 16 years old, and saying how they had the best women’s wrestlers. To be a part of the division, I can actually vouch for that now. I knew in my heart that Impact was going to be my home.”

On coming out during Pride Month: “Pride month started and I felt different about this year. I recently just got out of a five-year relationship, and I had this mindset of not hiding who I am and not being afraid of who I am and just being me. Don’t let anybody’s judgment steer you from being who you are. I kind of got in an unapologetic mindset after that. I felt like I couldn’t be myself fully in that relationship. Being out of that and being able to grow as a person in the few months after the breakup, I just got into the mindset of just completely being me. Why should I be afraid of being who I am? As a kid, I was bullied. I was given death threats. There was a whole situation that actually I talk about more in the new season of WOW. The struggles that I had in middle school growing up, going through that and then hiding it for so long and not being able to accept it because nobody really talked to me about it. So I just hid it. But now, being an adult and seeing the progression of the LGBT community, it’s all so inspiring. I became so confident in being who I am to a point where I was just like, you know what, I feel like I can share this with the world. I don’t want to hide this anymore. I feel like I can be accepted for who I am now.”

On deciding to go public about her relationship with Diamante: “Weeks later, me and Diamante were talking. We’d been together for a few months and we had always talked about if the time was right because this is such a big thing. Especially in the wrestling world. It’s very, very rare, especially for two women wrestlers to be together. We knew the impact that it would have on the wrestling community so we wanted it to be the right time. It’s funny. I actually decided I wanted to make the post very randomly. The few days leading up to it, me and her were really lovey. She was just giving me so much love and I just felt it. I felt it in my soul like it was the right time. I was at a Windsor, Ontario impact taping, in the Knockouts locker room and I turned to Tessa [Blanchard] and I was like, “I think I’m gonna make that post.” She said, “What post?” I was like, “THE post,” and she was like, “No, you’re not!” Her and Jordynne Grace sat down with me while I wrote it and proofread it for me. They edited all of my pictures and, when it was time to do it, Tessa was like, “Press the button! Press the button!” My Knockouts division sisters are the best people in the world. They are my family. I love them to the moon and back.”

On the message she wants all her fans to hear, regardless of sexuality: “Be happy with who you are. We have one life to live and you should be happy with the life that you’re living. Don’t feel like you’re wrong. I struggled with accepting who I was for a very long time. I tried to hide it. I tried to not talk about it. I only wanted to talk about it when people asked me but, of course, nobody asked me because nobody knew. You want to be happy with the life that you lived. I literally have “Aspire to Inspire” tattooed on my arm because this month alone has shown me how big of a voice that I have. A few months ago, I literally thought my voice didn’t matter. But to come out the way that I did, and to have the platforms that I have in Impact and WOW, my voice has been able to echo to so many different people in so many different places. I’ve had people tweet me saying that they’re coming out now because of me. To even think that I’ve inspired somebody so much that they’re able to accept themselves for who they are. I get so tongue tied. All I’ve ever wanted to do was inspire people the way I’ve had so many people inspire me. I’m so blessed with the life that I have and I want to use my voice in a positive light.”