The humble heartthrob has remained a touchstone for many Y2K-era TV viewers, so here are the touchstones that influenced his own coming-out journey.
For many closeted Kid watch over MTV in the year 2000 , Danny Roberts was a Revelation of Saint John the Divine . Like Norman Korpi , Pedro Zamora , and Genesis Moss before him , Roberts ' hurl onThe really Worldminted him one of the few openly braw multitude on television receiver . He was a handsome and ostensibly well - adjusted college grad with a swain , a US Army police captain whose face had to be obscured on the show because the homophobic " do n’t take , do n’t tell " insurance was still in effect . That alone made Roberts stand out , as evidenced by the reams of lover letters he received afterThe genuine World : New Orleansaired .
Roberts , who produce up in rural Georgia without access to cable television service and most other forms of democratic media , explore his 22 years as a reality - TV vanguard in the of late loose Paramount+ reunion seriesThe Real World Homecoming : New Orleans . " I had absolutely no life plan , " he allege inHomecoming ’s first sequence . " I was mostly in the closet , but I was seeking a catalyst to be to the full out of the closet and embrace being my rightful , raw self , as scary as that was . " Having survived the MTV gauntlet , the 44 - year - old Roberts now has a 6 - year - old daughter , lives in a Vermont cabin , and works as a tech recruiter .
If Roberts was an inspiration to a generation of pop - culture - ghost fag youth , what were his own queer breathing in ? During a conversation Roberts identify as " meta , " Thrillist asked him exactly that question .
Design by Maggie Rossetti for Thrillist
Whoopi Goldberg
I do n’t know why , but she really inspire me as a tike . With all the thing puzzle out against someone like her , there ’s no explanation of why she was able to become what she did . It was an illustration of someone who could be everything that was not mainstream and still create an amazing living . Now , Whoopi Goldberg is someone very different today , but back then , she rose up against crazy challenge — that ’s what it really boils down to .
The Catcher in the Rye
It ’s not a direct LGBT reference , but I conceive it inspired my spirit . It was one of my favorite books growing up . I very much tie in to Holden Caulfield . That ’s where my inner maverick arrive from . What I took off from it was a teen kid that I very much related to who was questioning everything around him that was being presented to him as the average — and whatisthe norm ? Why is this the norm ?
Norman Korpi fromTheReal World
Norm was very influential in my story . Norm , from the first New York time of year , was the first prison term in my life I ever actually saw a substantial - life object lesson of someone who ’s gay , which was extremely interesting to young me . It was impactful when I pick up Norm because I ’d hear plenty of negatively charged talk about merry people in my residential district . All I ever find out was negative , damaging , damaging , so seeing Norm made me think , " This guy does n’t seem anything like what I ’ve heard . " That really sparked me , more subconsciously than anything .
Boy Scouts
I did n’t produce up in church life , per se , but I did grow up in the Deep South , where religion is integrated into culture and everyday life , whether you ’re actively snuff it to church or not . There ’s very little partition , even though the people there do n’t genuinely grasp that . It drives the culture there . For your reference , Marjorie Taylor Greene is the repp for my district .
But where my early dabbling come from was my time playing hoops and in Boy Scouts . I think it ’s super common , teenage boys exploring . I did not remember of it as being festal whatsoever ; I just looked at it as friendly relationship and geographic expedition and curio . I ’d compartmentalise it as , " Oh , this is just a period of sprightliness ; I ’m not gay , " because in my mind , " gay " was very much a frightful , negative thing in the culture around me . Even being cast and going onThe Real World , I was still deep in deconstruct that negative picture . In fact , I think it ’s been a lifetime of deconstruct that negative picture .
One of them was my good friend growing up , and we ’re still friends . He ’s hetero . I think that ’s such a plebeian story that no one talks about . We go on backpack trips together almost each year , and we ’ve only once ever blab out about it . It was , " Yep , that bump . " He is as positive in himself as a human being can be , and it does n’t faze him . At the clock time , I did n’t have the language to understand what was happening , but I was feeling attached in deep ways than just intimate exploration . I skin with that as a teenager without in reality realise that ’s what I was skin with . When he discovered girls , I became improbably green-eyed — those bitches!I did n’t read what that was until many year later .
Madonna
Madonna was sort of the rebel that barrack all of us . She was pushing a lot of clit against organized religion back then , which , from my early days , has been really significant to me — it culminate in thisHomecoming . I always sleep together that about her . I had a Sony boom corner ; that was my outlet to the world . I grew up in a working - class household — not pitiful , but not quite middle class either — so I did n’t have a lot of access to purchase culture medium . My journey in unwrap what the LGBT public was was super limited , and I honestly did n’t get a peep into that until I let to university , when I had my first access to the internet .
AOL chat rooms
I was at university from ' 95 until ' 99 , and AOL chat rooms turned my world indoors out in all the correct room . That is where I genuinely had my first interaction with existent - life homo individuals — somewhat much mostly all closeted . I was at the University of Georgia , and it was still very taboo to be out . The gay prevention was hide in an alley on the big side of township . Nobody wanted to be understand going there ; it was very severe . There were a handful of brave individuals who were out on campus , but for the most part , almost everyone was closet back then . What people blank out today — and one of my biggest fright in doing that original season — was , by being out , you were wearing a Brobdingnagian ruddy letter on your chest that would limit your life opportunities . You could be , and often were , fire if your employer knew you were gay .
Whoopi Goldberg in ‘Ghost,’ released in 1990|Paramount Pictures
Madonna in the controversial ‘Like a Prayer’ video, released in 1989|Warner Bros.
