Lovers Free Queer Barely Legal.
Stephanie Dejoode
While the show has always felt undeniably queer, it hasn't always embraced its queerness like it does today. In its first few seasons (which aired in the early 2000s), it was evident that casting directors saw LGBTQ+ castaways as little more than opportunities to produce "button-pushing" TV, bringing on one or two (typically white) gay men in hopes of getting a brawl or, better, an unlikely friendship la Rudy Boesch and Richard Hatch.
But as Survivor evolved with the times and eventually committed to including 50% people of color in its casts, the representation of its LGBTQ+ castaways became more diverse too. Rather than there being one white gay male interacting with a field of straight castaways, today we have queer BIPOC, nonbinary, and transgender people all interacting and proving that the community isn't a monolith.
And then, of course, there are the fans. It has been well documented that Survivor has one of the most passionate online queer cult followings around. Some will say these fans have been drawn in by a quality more intrinsic to the show's gameplay and strategy. Others will simply attribute it to the volume of hot people in bathing suits. Whatever the case, I can anecdotally say that the number of gays I know who have watched all 42 seasons is incredibly high. They can quote Sandra and Sue. They can tell you which seasons included a tribe swap or a "fake merge." And they will tell you that Courtney Yates desperately needs to be on another season.
It's an odd bit of poetry that on the first-ever season of the show, the two openly LGBTQ+ players came in first and last. Survivor would quickly discover that while it aimed to cast a cross-section of America, that castaways past a certain age were easy cannon fodder pre-merge and so it began skewing its cast younger. The first season, however, included three 60-plus year-old castaways including Sonja Christopher, who at age 63, was the oldest woman (and remains the oldest woman ever to play). Struggling in the first challenge, she was targeted immediately and sent home in a 4-3-1 vote at the end of the first episode. While her sexuality wasn't highlighted on the show (barely anything was highlighted aside from her age and ukulele playing ability), she remains a historic part of the show and proves that it's been queer all along.
While the show has grown to focus predominantly on strategy, in its early seasons, Survivor (like The Real World and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) trafficked heavily in watching different worlds collide. Nowhere was that more apparent than in the relationship between eventual winner Richard Hatch, an often naked gay New Englander, and Rudy Boesch, a retired Navy SEAL. The two formed an unlikely bond (and one of the game's earliest effective alliances) despite Rudy openly disagreeing with Richard's lifestyle. While Richard is far from a perfect queer spokesperson (he went to jail for tax evasion and was involved in a sexual assault incident on All-Stars), and Rudy's brand of acceptance is far from what we'd expect today, the pair proved that those with vastly different beliefs could become friends. "I like him...not in a homosexual way," Rudy finally declared.
Would the trajectory of Survivor have been the same if the first season was less gay? Who is to say, but Richard winning season one as a "fat naked f*g" (as Sean labeled Richard, and repeatedly went uncensored) certainly pushed the show to evolve in ways that it wouldn't have otherwise. Richard, due in part to being gay on a television show that became popular on network television that was beamed into plenty of anti-gay houses, became the villain of the original season. He formed an alliance, voting out the naive unsuspecting competitors one after another. He was unapologetic of his sexuality and body. He was as Sue put it "a snake." Perhaps in some ways he would not have been the queer community's first choice for a representative (as his later controversies would attest to), and either due to him as a person, or his edit, or casting, the gay players that followed (John, Ami, Ricard, Hai) were often painted as scheming and villainous. BUT, Richard's win proved that a "villain" can win Survivor and that there is no real right or wrong way to play. His win gave tacit approval for future castaways to play hard and to strategize, the thing that has kept the show in business for 20-plus years. Had we gotten a "nicest person wins" season to start, I think the show would have fizzled, but because a villain won (and I think Richard was classified as such in many ways because he was gay), the show was allowed the room it needed to grow. So I'm not sure if Richard was the best winner for the LGBTQ+ community, but he definitely was for Survivor.
While the Richard/Rudy magic was never recreated, the show continued to cast one or two LGBTQ+ castaways each season, no doubt hoping for a similar odd couple to materialize. In the show's third season Brandon Quinton, a young gay bartender, and Frank Garrison, an outspoken, conservative army veteran were placed on the same tribe. The pair were instantly at odds, with Frank openly expressing anti-gay points of view while Brandon targeted his alliance. In a humorously ironic twist of fate, the pair won a movie date reward challenge much to the delight of their fellow castaways. Unlike Rudy, however, Frank never warmed to Brandon, concluding after the reward it "still doesn't mean I'd go to coffee with him" and that being with a gay person at all was "difficult enough for me personally." While players who made anti-gay comments in later seasons were villainized by both the show and fellow castaways (Shannon in Nicaragua is a good example), this early, Frank's intolerance is still shown matter-of-factly as a legitimate viewpoint held by many Americans that queer people just needed to work around.
We all love Boston Rob Mariano. He is one of (if not the) most beloved and iconic castaways ever to play Survivor. That being said, he really is not winning any GLAAD Awards for his first season. Frustrated that he wasn't in the majority alliance, Rob ambushed tribemate and nurse John Carroll, who was not yet out to his fellow players, asking if he was gay and calling him a "big time queer" in confessional. While anti-gay rhetoric went largely unchecked in 2002 when the season was filmed due to more widespread anti-gay sentiments (in Guatemala, another fan-favorite Stephenie LaGrossa uses "gay" as an insult), outing someone on national television has always been cruel and dangerous. Rob has since apologized for the comments, but the moment stands as extremely problematic in hindsight as Rob had no way of knowing if John was out to his friends and family outside of the game. John's voting Rob out of the game shortly after is karmic retribution, but sadly this wouldn't be the last time someone was outed on the show.
Speaking of Spencer Duhm, the 18-year-old college student and (at the time) youngest player ever became a piece of LGBTQ+ Survivor history well before he started dating Todd. During his short run on Tocantins, Spencer came out to the audience in his confessionals but stated he didn't want to come out to his tribe for fear that anti-gay feelings would make him an easy target. When Sydney asks him about dating at college, he says he likes being single but that there are attractive girls at school. While anti-gay sentiments are obviously still very present around the world, it's encouraging to see how far we've come since 2009 when this season aired.
What is the difference between allyship and tokenism? That is the question at the center of Corinne Kaplan's "you know I love to play with a gay" comment in her second season. Corinne, the liberal, foul-mouthed pharmaceutical rep from LA, was best known in her original season Gabon for repeatedly roasting her fellow castaways with scathing insults. That, and loving gay people. When she returned, she continued to do both. But whereas she and her original GBF (gay best friend) Charlie Herschel were immediately placed on the same tribe, it took her some time to find Michael Snow post-swap. While Corinne's effusive comments about gay people could be viewed as problematic today, her outspoken pro-LGBTQ+ stance was certainly not universal in 2008 when she played originally (one season before Spencer Duhm). Corinne is endlessly entertaining and should be brought back. If she needs a gay to play with, I volunteer as tribute (even though we will inevitably lose due to her horrific strategy).
When Brice Izyah arrived on Survivor, he was heralded as the first openly gay Black castaway on the show...14 YEARS INTO FILMING. The fact it took so long is baffling and highlights Survivor's glacially slow embrace of intersectional casting. Not only were there far too few LGBTQ+ BIPOC cast during this period (and well after), but when they were, the show often didn't know how to depict them as people outside their minority status. If you don't remember Brice, that's probably because he was booted at his first Tribal Council by an otherwise all white, all straight tribe. This speaks to a larger problem the show is only just now beginning to grapple with: that of minority players being eliminated early due to implicit bias from the majority (i.e. BIPOC and LGBTQ+ players often go early). This is even more common for castaways with intersecting identities. The first Black LGBTQ+ castaway, Jolanda Jones, was the first Tribal Council boot of Palau. The first Asian LGBTQ+ castaway, Brad Virata, was voted out pre-merge by a majority-white tribe in Cook Islands. And, Vince Moua would be eliminated third on Island of the Idols.
While Josh and Reed were not the first gay partners on a season together (we're all trying to forget the agent of chaos that was Colton Cumbie), they were the first pair to actually play and strategize together. Josh Canfield and Reed Kelly were Broadway actors who fell in love, and yet despite being gay were both Christians (something that seemed antithetical in 2014). While they have since broken up, their onscreen relationship provided a nice bit of representation in the slew of straight couples on both Blood vs. Water seasons. They were strategic, physical threats and Josh in particular was intent on breaking stereotypes for gay people (especially those cast on the show). He baulked at being labeled "one of the girls" and proved that there are many ways to be gay beyond the femme versions we often see. You can be an athletic, religious, masculine man and still be gay. Would love to see them back on the show. Exes season, anyone?