Sacred Ground Chapter 3 is coming up next Saturday, and one match on the card has me thinking. That is the bout between Rick Michaels and Simon Sermon.

 Rick Michaels is not popular in Porterdale. The audience boos him every chance they get, and they make fun of his ring attire calling him "duct tape pants".

He has a long standing feud with the openly gay and openly flashy Simon Sermon. Simon Sermon is known to wear a pink velvet cloak to the ring, and he also wears glittery lipgloss. I found out from talking to various people that he normally wrestles as a bad guy, but in our show he is supposed to be a good guy. In Avondale, women love him and he kisses men on the cheek as he enters. The audience can't get enough of his antics.

A few weeks ago in Porterdale,the audience refused to get behind him. They instead chose to cheer Michaels who previously they couldn't stand. I'm sitting in the audience. I'm trying to drum up support for him. My husband, my son and I are the lone voices in the crowd cheering for Simon Sermon. Why did the crowd all of a sudden get behind Rick Michaels? My opinion is that they didn't want to cheer for the "gay" guy.

I've only seen Sermon wrestle in Porterdale three times. I enjoy watching him. I find his ring attire and mannerisms to be a mockery of the over the top stereotypes attributed to homosexual men. I think he's embraced these in order to prove the point that he doesn't care if he's loved or hated, he's simply going to be who he is. I love him for this.

I know not everyone is narrow minded when it comes to issues of equality of race, gender, and sexual orientation. But it made me sad to live in a community where even though he wrestled that way, a gay man could not be seen as a hero.

I don't know if they will change the roles in the match at Sacred Ground Chapter 3 to have Sermon as a bad guy and Michaels as a good guy based on the perception of the crowd during their last match in Porterdale, but it is a shame if they have to.