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Against Survivor Champion Richard Hatch Becomes USA's Most Famous Gay-Male Parent Attorney General Gives 39-Year-Old Dad a 2nd Major Victory |
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By Randolfe Wicker
Hatch's 9-year-old son had said that Hatch had wrapped his hands around his neck when he had tired on a run in April. Hatch had been arrested and taken to jail and had been forced to stay there overnight by local police. Hatch said the boy had concocted the story because he was angry about being forced to exercise. Hatch had embarked on a personal-trainer directed running and exercise program a full year before joining the "Survivor 16" and had lost 100 pounds even before joining the stranded 16 "only-one-will survive" survivors.
Hatch repeated on a Rhode Island radio program what he'd said nationally about Rudy on the hour-long televised post-victory panel: "I support him in his honesty. Not the use of the words in harmful ways, but when Rudy talks to me about who I am that way, he's just a great guy. I'm really, really happy with who he is." In the hour discussion following the final episode of Survivor Richard Hatch said that Rudy was the "first person" he had picked to be in his four-member alliance because he could see that Rudy was someone who was real and genuine and who's word could be trusted. Indeed Richard Hatch might have been the ultimate winner in the show Survivor but it was Rudy who won the hearts of the overwhelming majority of viewers. His fans even included Badpuppy posters on the forum discussion boards who, almost reluctantly, admitted that Rudy, even at age 72 , "had a certain masculine edge to him that made him attractive". Fifty-one million viewers watched the final episode of Survivor which made it the most watched television program of the year, second only to the Super Bowl. Certain mainstream gay media outlets failed realize the magnitude, the sociological importance, of a homosexual male beating out fifteen heterosexuals in a sixteen-member game of survival. One major gay news site, reluctantly noted the event and framed it in terms along the lines of: "Richard Hatch has prevailed. While we would not choose this person to be 'our' representative, he has become a National figure." "That naked fat guy", as David Letterman liked to describe him, obviously was not wearing the trendy over-priced clothing that the advertisements supporting such magazines as OUT have depended upon. Richard Hatch, whose own earliest days were troubled, says that he is concerned about the power of bureaucracies to meddle in family matters. "I was very touched by his declaration that he wanted to help troubled teens because he, himself, was helped." exclaimed one Hatch enthusiast to this GayToday reporter. "This is our 'John of Arc!' " Articles in the New York Times compared the Survivor speeches made by Richard Hatch and his opponent Kelly to the acceptance speeches made by George W. Bush, Al Gore and Ralph Nader. The Survivor story is not yet over. In many ways, it is just beginning. |
