Reality TV’s Most Dysfunctional Gay Duos!

Talk about warts and all!

The good thing about reality TV is that it’s allowed viewers to see real-life gay and bisexual men in “real” situations. The bad thing about reality TV is that it’s allowed viewers to see real-life gay and bisexual mean in “real” situations.

Not really. We actually think it’s terrific that reality television has allowed viewers to see a much, much more diverse range of gay and bisexual men – racial and otherwise – than they ever see on scripted television.

And some of the most interesting things viewers have seen have been the relationships between two gay or bi men, whether they’re a couple, brothers, or just “frenemies.”

The bickering! The back-stabbing! At first glance, you might cringe and think, “Did they really have to show that? What will people think?”

But the real “reality” of reality television is that gay and bisexual men usually aren’t tragic victims, saintly lesson-givers, or the punchline to some joke – the way gay characters are still so often portrayed on scripted television.

In short, reality television shows the world that gay relationships are just as screwed-up as everyone else’s. Talk about your subversive messages! Harvey Milk couldn’t have said it better.

That said, we were curious: which gay or bi reality TV duo is the most dysfunctional?*

First, a caveat. Reality shows are, of course, not entirely about reality. The participants know they’re on a reality show, so they play to the camera. The producers, meanwhile, not only manipulate the situation to get the best drama, they then edit days and days of footage down into nice, concise story-arcs (usually with a clear “nice guy” and a clear “villain”). What we end up seeing can be a very far cry from what “really” happened.

The point is, who knows what these folks and their relationships are really like? We’re simply judging what we saw on-screen.

* Excluding Project Runway. I mean, come on! You want us to write the whole article about one show?!

6. Raven and Tatianna on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Season 2 (Logo)

Tatianna (left) and Raven

What did Raven have against Tatianna (and, well, the entire rest of the world)? It’s hard to say, but the fact is, it made for some pretty fascinating television.

It’s clear that Raven never liked Tatianna, but it wasn’t until Episode 7, when Tatianna was unexpectedly saved by RuPaul over Jessica Wilde, that Raven let her inner Faye-Dunaway-in-Mommie-Dearest run wild. During the following episode, where the queens are asked to turn an older gay man into a drag queen, the feud is in full-swing, with Tatianna working to make sure Raven gets the gent she thinks will be most difficult to transform. And when Raven ends up winning the challenge, she’s definitely not eating any crow.

Raven works drag wonders with
the mature gentleman Tatianna pairs her with.

In the reunion show, Raven and Tatianna thankfully made up – and it seemed genuine. And Raven revealed a pretty fascinating explanation for why her feud with Tatianna seemed so extreme in the first place: when the producers interviewed her between scenes, she had simply decided to be completely honest about everything she was thinking and feeling.

Someone telling the truth on television? When was the last time we saw that?