11 Shocking Gay Reality TV Moments

9. Piers Morgan kisses Trace Adkins on The Celebrity Apprentice

Clockwise from top left: Morgan, Donald Trump, and Adkins

The night she was fired on The Celebrity Apprentice, perpetual reality star Omarosa announced that fellow competitor and America's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan was "in the closet," and that was just part of one of the season's craziest boardrooms. After Piers denied being gay, Donald Trump launched into an awkward defense of gay people ("You know what, there are gay people around, and that's great, and there are non-gays, but you called him a homosexual, but he says he's not a homosexual"). Before Trump fired Omarosa, Piers decided to prove his heterosexuality by kissing country singer Trace Adkins on the cheek, which shocked everyone, particularly Adkins. "I just want to say, Trace, you're a beautiful cowboy," Piers said, prompting Trace to freak out ("I don't understand that at all.") For once, Omarosa was overshadowed.

Why it's shocking: Donald Trump awkwardly defended gay people even as Trace Adkins demonstrated some homophobia.

8. Clay Aiken (sort of) denies he's gay on Good Morning America

Besides being the most successful runner-up in the history of American Idol, Clay Aiken is perhaps most interesting for the persistent discussion of his sexual orientation that follows him. While he's been asked about and denied those rumors for years, Good Morning America's Diane Sawyer got a surprisingly ambiguous answer when she asked Aiken directly about the gay rumors in a 2006 interview. The singer's response could easily be read as a flat denial, or as a veiled confession. He would only say that it "would not make any sense for me" to admit being gay, because "what I do in my private life is nobody's business anymore." After that, he refused to even respond to such questions with other interviewers.

Clay Aiken and Diane Sawyer on GMA

Photo credit Scott Gries/Getty Images

Two years later, he apparently changed his mind, appearing on the cover of People with his newborn son, whose birth led Clay to come out. "I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that," he told the magazine.

Why it's shocking: Asking Aiken about his sexuality once elicited strong denials, but with this interview -- in which Sawyer treated the topic the same way she would with any other question about a celebrity's personal life -- Clay seemed to be simultaneously opening and slamming the closet door.

7. Big Brother cast member says tops can't get HIV

Joshuah Welch

CBS' reality competition Big Brother, which is broadcast three days a week on TV and 24 hours a day online, has never been known for its genius cast members. But during the show's first-ever spring edition, gay cast member Joshuah Welch took stupidity to the next level, insisting that unprotected sex is fine for tops, because it's impossible to contract HIV in that fashion. In a conversation broadcast to those fans watching online (but not shown on TV), Joshuah insisted, "I won't do it [bareback] on a one-night stand, that's too risky. If you're a top, it's okay, because you're f**king a bottom, you can't really get HIV from being a top because you're penetrating them."

Even worse, the cast members he was talking to – including James Zinkand, a bisexual man who has appeared in gay porn – did not challenge Joshuah's inaccuracies. Later in the conversation, Joshuah went on to describe the benefits of using cocaine on genitalia during sex, in addition to doing drugs anally.

Why it's shocking: That multiple people in 2008 can be that ignorant about safe sex is genuinely horrifying.