"Design Star 3": More Design – Still Gay

Surprisingly, it was HGTV and Design Star that helped Locke heal the rift with his mother. "My mom is a huge fan of the show and of the network, and so she kind of reached out to me first and we started talking and kind of warming back up to each other," he said. "I told her I was going to audition for Design Star, and she went crazy. It’s like she instantly turned away from being this conservative role she was in before to a total stage mom. And it was awesome, she had all this advice for me and she said things like, 'Matt, I’m the demographic, I’m the woman who watches this network all day. I’m going to tell you exactly what I look for in contestants.'"

Out of respect for their newly-healed relationship as well as for the rest of his family, Matt's keeping a fairly low profile about being gay. "They live in Colorado Springs, and in their community, with their friends, and their church it just doesn’t really need to come up," he told me. "But for me, I’m an open book and I don’t have any qualms about people knowing exactly who I am. So I’m kind of in this middle ground where for you guys like AfterElton, I’m happy to talk about it. If I were going to show up on Good Morning America, I probably wouldn’t bring it up."

Still, Matt has no intention of going back in the closet, not even on network television. If faced with a direct question, he said, "I would definitely say I was gay and be proud to say that." Then he laughed. "I don’t think my mom's very Internet savvy. I don’t know that she Googles me and finds all the links, but if she did I think she would just quietly read it and close it."

Michael and Matt only meet for a few seconds at the end of the first episode, but they both told me they became good friends over the course of filming the show.

"Oh my god, I love Matt," said Michael. "We’re night and day, but when I met him he reminded me of my ex, so it was very nice having him around. And he calls me 'little blondie' or 'pumpkin' or 'sweetheart.' I love Matt. I would do anything for Matt Locke."

"Michael was so fun," said Matt. "I knew right away this kid was going to be hysterically funny. He really is a sweet guy and I had a blast with him." He laughed. "He’s so energetic, and I don’t remember any kind of down time with him. Like when he’s on, it’s on. And then I don’t remember him ever being off."

Both men said that they formed tight friendships with all the other contestants, despite the fact that they were competitors. One of them, a "cop by day, designer by night" named Mikey Verdugo struck Matt as a design threat from the start.

"The minute I saw him and shook his hand, I knew he was my toughest competition," he said. "I could just feel it. I'd thought, I’m the guy who uses tools and knows how to build, and that will be my advantage. And then I get there and he can do all that, too. And I was like, 'Aww man.'"

Mikey Verdugo

Verdugo comes across in the first episode as a tough guy with a great sense of humor – and in a strikingly un-coplike way, he lists the controversial modernist Le Corbusier as his design icon. I asked Matt what he thought about that. "I love that," he said, "because you think, oh he’s just a cop and he talks like a New Yorker, just a gruff dude. But he’s no amateur, believe me."