Watch: Pro Strongman Ron Kearney Talks about Being Out in Hyper-masculine Sport

He's billed himself as "The World's Strongest Gay." This week Rob Kearney opened up in a TV interview about being out, proud, and married to another man while being active in a hyper-masculine sport.

Talking with ABC News program Nightline, Kearney recalled that he always knew he was "different" when he was a not-so-athletic kid, but "I never accepted as to why. It was always just pushed to the back of my mind. And I never wanted to deal with it."

Kearney said "it was in the weight room where like I really found myself," but it wasn't he was in college and in a relationship with a young woman that he was finally ready to accept himself and embrace authenticity.

"I kind of had this epiphany and I was like, 'I can't do this anymore," Kearney recalled. "Here I am thinking I'm living this heteronormative life and going to have that white picket fence life with a wife and kids, and I'm finally realizing that's not what I want, and that's not what's going to make me happy."

From there, the strongman told Nightline, it was a short step to another realization: That "if people didn't like it about me, I didn't need them to accept it. I was finally accepting myself. And that was opening up these doors that I never knew existed."

Among those doors that were opening up was the door to the closet. As reported at the EDGE at the time, Kearney came out publicly in 2014. Nightline recalled that he even billed himself as "the world's strongest gay."

"But even Rob's mighty strength was no match for Cupid's arrow," the report added.

"Not long after I had ended that relationship with the girl, I actually met Joey," Kearney said, with a grin, referring to his husband, Joey Kearney. "I look back and it was honestly like a middle school romance to start."

Joining in on the conversation, Joey recalled that at first he had no idea what it was Rob did. "I was like, 'Oh, yeah, that sounds cool. Like, you lift weights.' " But once he saw more about Rob's sport, Joey had his own epiphany: "I'm like, one that's pretty cool and like, two, I want to do that."

Now they are a literal power couple, both of them competing in strongman events –�and both of them accepted by their peers.

Not only has Kearney not hidden who he is, he's written several books, including one with Joey. Among his published work is his 2020 autobiography "No Hiding," and a children's book titled "Strong."

Kearney's message? That strength has a whole lot more to do with character than with muscles –�and what's more, authenticity doesn't mean sacrificing your goals. Instead, it can be a way to break barriers.

"I think all too often gay men are seen as weak," Kearney told Nightline. "And they're typically portrayed as you know, feminine, flamboyant, and that's really it." But, he added, "Gay doesn't have to look a certain way. Here I am as a gay man with a mohawk and these muscles and competing at the highest level of this hyper-masculine sport of Strongman.

"It's been a really great way to be able to show people that sexuality really has no bearing on things you can achieve."

Watch the Nightline news report by following this link.