Survivor Tocantins | Duhm Wary of Being Defined by His Sexuality | theledger.com | The Ledger

Duhm Wary of Being Defined by His Sexuality | theledger.com | The Ledger | Lakeland, FL

February 11th, 2009 | by cwalton |

Quoting from Duhm Wary of Being Defined by His Sexuality | theledger.com | The Ledger | Lakeland, FL

Spencer on Survivor Tocantins
“Survivor” has had at least five gay contestants during its previous 17 seasons. Richard Hatch emerged as champion of the first series, “Survivor: Borneo,” in 2000, and Todd Herzog captured “Survivor: China” in 2007. Rafe Judkins took third place on “Survivor: Guatemala” in 2005.

Duhm, 20, projects mixed feelings about being included in that list. Though open about his orientation with his family and friends, he is wary of being pigeonholed as “the gay guy.” He said it bothered him to hear show host Jeff Probst summarize Herzog at the beginning of the China series as “the gay flight attendant.”

“It’s inevitable that somebody will do that,” Duhm said. “The bios come out before anybody’s seen anything, and (fans are) going to say, ‘You’re the black one. You’re the old woman.’ I didn’t want people on TV right off the bat to go, ‘OK, here’s our homo.’”

Duhm said he’d rather be known as the young guy or the “Survivor” fanatic. In reality, though, a Google search on the word combination “Spencer Survivor gay” already turns up 798,000 hits, before the first episode has even aired.