From his reign as heavyweight champion in the WWE to his second act as an action star in tentpole blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy and Dune, it's easy to associate wrestler-turned-actor Dave Bautista with a certain level of old-school machismo. But by his own declaration, Bautista is no "meathead": and he has got no time for any of the less-than-progressive ideals that might otherwise get projected onto a hulking, hetero, hypermasculine leading man.
Bautista just shared a post on Instagram celebrating Pride season, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a rainbow and the slogan "Be You." (The shirt is also tight enough, and shows off enough of that trademark chest and arm pump, that he'd swan through the door of any gay club without having to pay cover but that's incidental.)
In particular, Bautista took the opportunity to pay tribute to his mother Donna Raye, an openly gay woman, who he says taught him everything he needs to know about living "loud and proud." And if anyone were to take issue with that, he has some choice words for them too.
"I was always proud of who my mom was because she was always proud of who she was," he wrote. "In your face, fuck you if you don’t like it, unapologetically loud and proud. And her son payed attention. BE LOUD, BE PROUD, BE YOU."
He signed off the post with a number of Pride season hashtags, as well as #ProudSonofaLesbian. He's so proud, in fact, that in his Men's Health cover story last year he mentioned that he used some of the money he earned making movies to buy her a house in her dream neighborhood in San Francisco.
