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John Cena opens up about defending his gay brother when they were kids
The beloved actor and wrestler explained how protective he felt about his gay brother, Steve, as they grew up in a small town in Massachusetts.
We love an authentic ally.
The gays don’t love John Cena just because he bared it all at the 2024 Oscars ceremony. In reality, the Peacemaker actor has been pretty outspoken about his support of the LGBTQ+ community and has shown unconditional love every time that he’s spoken about his gay brother.
As the story goes, John’s parents had five sons. One of them, Steve Cena, who is older than John, is a gay man who unfortunately struggled with homophobia over the course of his life. In a recent interview on Armchair Expert, Cena brought up his childhood and talked the obstacles his brother went through growing up as a gay man. The actor said:
“My brother was like a true nerd, and this is at the height of the 1980s, like Revenge of the Nerds. [But] our town wasn’t yet at the Revenge of the Nerds sort of state. Life was tough for my brother in high school. Not only was he an introvert and interested in computers. He’s also gay. And being gay in the 1980s in a small town in Massachusetts… man, that’s an uphill climb. He just had a lot of character traits that weren’t in the ‘cool kid’ group, and he’s also holding this secret that he can’t tell or talk to anybody about.”
Cena continued, “I really feel for what it must have been like for him growing up. But I also inherited that chapter of his social constructs. And, man, it got me to learn how to lose a few fights [laughs].”
Podcast host Dax Shepherd asked Cena if there was a “role reversal” between he and Steve — noting that “conventionally, you would hope your older brother would step in to defend you.”
While John is younger than Steve, he did feel a sense of protectiveness over his sibling. “That sort of behavior started like at 10 years old for me,” the actor explained. “I don’t think I understood what was going on. Kids are harsh. They form cliques real fast. And we always just hung out with each other. There was enough of us to have a basketball team, which means we could do whatever we want. We want to play football or baseball, there’s enough of us. So we didn’t feel [that] we needed anybody else. (…) If we could make it through school and get back to the house, all is fine.”
John added that he and Steve were very close as kids, and even when they started to join other groups of friends as teenagers, the Barbie guest star “took on the role of, ‘Hey, if you say something to the younger brothers, I will do my best to throw myself in harm’s way. It’s going to stop here.’”
Cena’s public support of his gay brother and allyship to LGBTQ+ community has been documented over the years. In 2013, for instance, reporters questioned Cena about WWE star Darren Young coming out and becoming the first out gay wrestler to compete in the league. As you can see in the video below, TMZ tried to bait Cena to say something negative — asking about whether his interactions with Young would change and how he would feel to cross paths with an out gay man in the locker room.
Without missing a beat, Cena shut down all of those problematic questions and brought up the fact that his older brother is gay. This would’ve already been a great display of allyship in 2024. And in 2013, this was an even bigger deal.
Looking good and acting right — gotta love John Cena!
Bernardo Sim is the deputy editor of Out, as well as a writer and content creator. Born in Brazil, he currently lives in South Florida. You can follow him on Instagram at @bernardosim.
Bernardo Sim is the deputy editor of Out, as well as a writer and content creator. Born in Brazil, he currently lives in South Florida. You can follow him on Instagram at @bernardosim.
