In a competition featuring 12 very diverse teams of two people – each with a pre-existing relationship of some kind - gay teammates Tom and Terry were eliminated in last Sunday night's episode of The Amazing Race, CBS's long-running hit reality show.

In what sounded rather like a bit of gay stereotyping, the Amazing Race's website describes the dating gay couple as “feisty” and given to “constant nitpicking”. Yet in the actual competition, Tom and Terry remained mutually supportive and doggedly determined throughout. For four grueling episodes, they successfully ran AR's gauntlet of tricky, physically demanding challenges.

In a season marked by squabbles and bad vibes between most of AR's heterosexual couples, Tom and Terry shone as examples of team camaraderie and good sportsmanship. They kept their composure, their cool, and their compassion for each other intact more often than many of the other contending teams.

In their four episodes in the race, Tom and Terry placed 8th at the Great Wall of China pit stop; 4th at the Mongolia pit stop; 8th at Hanoi, Vietnam pit stop (but would've been 2nd if not for a thirty minute penalty) – and finally 8th again (last place) this past Sunday night.

On their way to their final pit stop, an exhausted Tom cried out, "This is the hardest thing I've ever done." After their elimination, Terry remarked about his partner, “Tom has a lot of heart. He's my soul mate. But today more than any day on the race speaks volumes about the strength of our relationship."

Tom and Terry recently gave AfterElton.com the inside scoop on their Amazing Race experience.

AfterElton.com: Just by the nature of our society, AR tends to feature many married and dating straight couples. Do you feel it's important for Americans to see relationships like yours alongside the straight ones?
Tom: Yes, I think so. We ran a good race and we got along well. I hope what middle America takes away from this is that we have a healthy relationship. We weren't on this race “reading” each other like some of the teams were. I think we represented ourselves well. I think it's great that our relationship was showcased in this way.

AE: Are you happy with how CBS portrayed you?
Terry: Actually, yes

Tom: To clarify – You can only be portrayed with the information you are giving them. Our experience was that they were doing a pretty good job. I don't think anyone was being “portrayed”. We understand that CBS had to edit, etc., but we feel 100% assured that contestants were being portrayed the way they really are.

AE: It seemed like when things got difficult the straight married/dating couples frequently pulled apart rather than together (Peter and Sarah and Rob and Kimberly especially) whereas the same-sex pairings, whether straight or gay, tended to pull together and be supportive. Frankly, you guys made gay relationships look great, especially compared to straight ones. Any thoughts about that?
Terry: Well, we can only be who we are –and we can't always predict how we come across. Amazing Race showed that, gay or straight, relationships were strong on the show. Who out there in Middle America would've thought the two gay guys from New York City would become extremely close to the coalminer and his wife from Kentucky?

AE: The episodes were edited in such a way that it seemed like there were two types of teams--those out only for themselves and winning, and those who were helpful to the other teams and there for the experience as much as for the money. It seemed like the two of you, Erwin and Godwin, Lyn and Karlyn, and David and Mary were on the same side and actually became friends. Was that the case?
Tom: That's 100% accurate. At first we thought we would not make friends. But the minute we met Mary we said, “My God – this woman is so genuine and sweet. We realized in China that we were developing friendships with the other teams, and that we would've done anything for any of the “backpack” teams – and they would've done the same for us.

Terry: On our last leg, the Cho brothers actually owed us for helping them.

Tom: We hoped they could've towed our boat for us.

AE: It's almost like those that were considered the minorities stuck together. Any thoughts on that?
Tom: All the teams were pretty diverse. But yes, the minorities seemed to gravitate towards each other right away.

AE: Regarding the last episode - in your sampan boat off the coast of Vietnam, you both had great difficulty rowing. Tom surprised everyone when he jumped in the water and actually started towing Terry. Since this occurred right around the “floating village”, did it ever occur to you that the water there might be really dirty and unsanitary?
Tom: Yeah, but you know what? I was already so dirty at that point that it didn't even matter. Honestly, in looking back on it – I wish I had jumped into the water around three hours before that!

Terry: What they didn't actually show was that we were already drenched with water because our boat had actually flooded – right at the point when we would have been neck and neck with the beauty queens.

Tom: We had been leaning over to reach the pearls in the baskets, and we started taking on water. And then the bottom of our boat started to like – fall out. We had to bail out all that water. It was a mess. It was disgusting. We thought that in a minute we'd be sitting on top of the boat! At that point I really should've started towing.

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