<% IssueDate = "6/2/03" IssueCategory = "Entertainment" %>

Entertainment Boy Meets Boy: Get Real TV By Jesse Monteagudo Jesse's Journal Cast of Boy Meets Boy, debuting in July on Bravo Boy Meets Boy is a new reality television series that the cable network Bravo will premiere in July. In this six-part series, the Boy of the First Part - "a 32-year-old HR exec from Southern California" - will date fifteen Boys of the Second Part, from which he will choose one. Unbeknownst to our Boy - there's always a catch in these reality shows - some of his dates are secretly heterosexual; and it's up to our hero to separate the straight men from the gay Boys. If one of the het dudes is chosen, he (the het dude) will win a cash prize. If our Boy picks another gay, he wins the cash prize and an all expenses-paid vacation (with, I suppose, his chosen Boy). "I think this will be truly groundbreaking television," said Douglas Ross, the show's openly-gay producer. "One of the reasons we decided to take the basic dating format and throw in this twist is that we wanted the show to appeal to a broader audience." As expected, the religious right went ballistic over Boy Meets Boy. Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, plans to warn her group's 43,000 member churches of this latest outrage against the family: "Clearly, they've hit a new low," she said. "What's next after Boy Meets Boy? 'Boy Meets Sheep'?" Lafferty also plans to inform her group's members that Bravo was recently bought by NBC, presumably so that the members would boycott NBC as well as Bravo. "Just when you think programming can't get any worse, it seems like it drops another 100 feet to an even darker place." The late AIDS activist Pedro Zamora starred on MTV's The Real World Lafferty is fighting a losing battle. Gay, lesbian and bisexual - though not transgendered - people have been a part of reality TV as long as there has been reality TV. In fact, there are more of us on reality shows than on dramatic programs or situation comedies. The very first "reality" series, An American Family (PBS, 1973) featured the antics of openly-gay Lance Loud, who went on to build a career out of his early TV appearance. MTV's Real World series, in which a bunch of strangers were made to live together in full-view of the cameras, has featured at least one Les, Bi or Gay cast member per season since the show began in 1992. The late AIDS activist Pedro Zamora and cute-as-a-button Danny Roberts are only two of many gays who became famous by appearing in The Real World. Meanwhile, the CBS series Survivor became a footnote in GLBT history when the bearish Richard Hatch won the big prize in the show's first year (2000). Since then, every season of Survivor has had at least one gay contestant. Other reality shows continue this gay trend. The short-lived American High (Fox and PBS, 2000-2001), which chronicled the lives of students at Highland Park High School in Illinois, featured the openly gay teen Brad Krefman. The Amazing Race, also on CBS, has had two or more gays among its globe-trotting contestants since it began in 2001; whether they be real-life partners Bill Bartek and Joe Baldassare or nice Cuban boys Oswald and Danny. In the USA Network's Eco-Challenge Fiji 2002 (2002), an all-gay team sponsored by Subaru took part in this strenuous South Sea competition. And of course the gays who compete on American Idol and other talent contests are too numerous to mention. Bravo, home of Boy Meets Boy, is no stranger to gay reality TV. Before Boy Meets Boy, Bravo gave us Fire Island (2000) (an "all-gay" version of The Real World), The Gay Riviera (2001) and Gay Weddings (2002). Each of these shows received its share of protests - from gays upset about the presence of gay stereotypes and from religious bigots upset about the presence of gays period - but they were so popular that Bravo wanted more. This summer, in addition to Boy Meets Boy, Bravo has scheduled a show called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, where five gay designers attempt to perform the impossible and dress up a clueless straight man. Lots of luck. Richard Hatch, left, won the first Survivor competition, and made gay history at the same time To me, reality TV is a guilty pleasure, especially when there are gays in it. I know only too well that there is very little "reality" on reality TV; and that the real-life "actors" on these shows are performing as much as - and sometimes better than - the actors in dramatic or comedy series. Reality TV plays up to our need to see other people make fools out of themselves. In a medium where cute, smart, successful Will Truman can't get laid, it is good to see gay people living their lives, falling in love, and even having SEX. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Ms. Andrea Lafferty. Some activists complain that gay reality TV plays up gay stereotypes by featuring flamboyant or over-the-top characters. There is one good reason for this. Reality TV is supposed to entertain, not educate, enlighten or push the so-called "gay agenda" (Lafferty to the contrary). Queenie Brandon Quinton on Survivor: Africa was probably every mother's fear of what their gay son might turn out to be. But he is also smart, sassy, cute in his own way and out-and-proud at a time when a certain Congressman from West Palm Beach continues to shudder in his closet. If Quinton is not the Gay Everyman, neither is Richard Hatch (or Pedro Zamora); no more than the Bachelor or the Bachelorette are "typical" heterosexuals. If they were ordinary, they wouldn't be on TV in the first place. So sit back, relax, and enjoy reality TV, knowing full well that each and every gay presence will drive up Andrea Lafferty's blood pressure a bit. Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer who lives in South Florida with his husbear. He has never been on reality TV. Interested parties may contact him at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.

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