When viewers tuned in to MTV in 1992, they were introduced to seven strangers chosen to share a house together for three months, who had their lives taped nonstop, with the end result of their communal experience broadcast to a nationwide audience in a series of thirteen episodes. This was the premise of MTV's runaway hit show and soon-to-be cultural icon The Real World.

The show's cast of seven strangers was diverse; it comprised three women and four men, two African Americans and five Caucasians, six heterosexuals and one homosexual, Norman Korpi. Korpi's presence in MTV's SoHo loft was not, however, greeted with the shock that Americans felt in response to Lance Loud's overt homosexuality. Instead, Korpi presented himself as a gay role model: politically active, intellectually astute, and perhaps most importantly, in the words of fellow cast member Julie, just everyday people.

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MTV's decision to cast Korpi in the premiere season of The Real World set a precedent that MTV would adhere to closely, the conscious inclusion of gay men and lesbians in the "seven strangers" formula. Almost invariably the gay or lesbian cast members come across as the most "normal" of the seven cast mates, and very often they are the most involved in political causes.

In the New York season, for instance, Korpi cajoled other cast members into joining him at the March for Reproductive Rights in Washington, D. C. In 1993, Los Angeles "Real Worlder" Beth Anthony campaigned for gay marriage; and, shortly after taping ended for the season, she married her girlfriend Becky. Real World New Orleans (2000) featured Danny Roberts who, by announcing that his lover was in the military, brought to MTV viewers the debate over the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, dramatizing in richly human terms the cost such a policy exacts of those who are directly affected by it.

But the Real World cast member who left perhaps the most lasting, politically charged, and poignant impression on MTV audiences was Pedro Zamora (1972-1994), a resident in the 1994 San Francisco season. Zamora, an AIDS activist, was HIV-positive during the show's taping, and he used his appearance on the show to educate MTV viewers and the public at large about both the dangers of HIV/AIDS and the rights and dignity of PWAs (People Living with AIDS). Zamora died of AIDS complications on November 11, 1994, and was eulogized by President Bill Clinton.

MTV's The Real World continues to lure viewers in to the lives of seven randomly chosen strangers each year, and every new season brings with it the promise of a new gay or lesbian character whom viewers will come to know, and with whom many can readily identify. Yet the formulaic elements of The Real World have been eclipsed by the recent ascension of more competitive, money-driven reality game shows such as Survivor and The Amazing Race, even as the gay and lesbian presence on these shows remains constant.

Game-Show Reality: Outwit, Outlast, Out There!

When Richard Hatch walked away with the $1 million prize for being the last Survivor standing, American television viewers sat up and took notice. Here was a hirsute, paunchy gay man seen by millions of Americans winning a test of raw physicality and brilliant cunning and being handsomely rewarded by a jury of his reality game-show peers.

Hatch was, of course, no one's idea of a gay role model (indeed, in 2006, he would be convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to 51 months in prison), much less a network superstar, but according to Advocate columnist Erik Meers, his soap-operatic connivings were the best thing for CBS's ratings since the 1980s prime time soap-opera cliffhanger Who Shot J. R. Ewing? In fact, Hatch's popularity owed far more to his scheming than to his being openly gay, a fact that as the show progressed became incidental.

Like his reality show predecessors on MTV, Hatch's position in Survivor was simply a part of the reality TV formula, and increasingly gay men and lesbians began appearing regularly on the rapidly proliferating reality game shows. Survivor: Africa (2001) featured flamboyant competitor Brandon Quinton; Survivor: Marquesas (2002) offered castaway John Carroll; and ABC's show The Mole showcased two gay cast members, Jim Morrison and Jennifer Biondi, in its 2001 premiere season.

But perhaps the biggest boost for visibly gay and lesbian persons on television was the triumph by Reichen Lehmkuhl and Chip Arndt in CBS's The Amazing Race (2003). Like Richard Hatch, Lehmkuhl and Arndt garnered a $1 million prize for besting their competitors, and they did so while insisting that CBS caption them as "married" for the duration of the show.