"American Gladiators"' First Gay Contender

Hetherington has nothing but praise for James Ruggiero (pictured right), the contender he is paired with in Monday night's episode. "My opponent on the show was one of the coolest people that I’ve ever met in my life. Every time we went out, he’d practically be holding my hand. He’s a straight guy. He’s a football coach at a high school.

"And I hope they show this on the show, too, but he was so supportive and so happy to be competing against me because of the history involved. Every time the cameras were in front of him [they would ask], 'So what do you think of your opponent?' He never said, 'Oh, I’m going to beat him. I can’t wait for him to lose.' He always said things like, 'I’m so excited he’s here. He’s such a fierce guy.' It was great."

Hetherington also acknowledges how supportive boyfriend Aaron was during the entire adventure.

"He was so excited when I got cast," said Hetherington. "The night before we went to go start shooting, I had a breakdown in my bedroom. I started crying and I started thinking about how when I was a kid, I couldn’t get across monkey bars. Some of the kids would make fun of me and some of them were just overly supportive and they just would cheer if I got across one ring.

"And I panicked and I cried and I cried and I said, 'I don’t want to do this. I just don’t want to do this.' He just held me really tight and he said, 'You know, you don’t have to do this. If you’re embarrassed that people might make fun of you for being afraid to do this, you can call them all right now and tell them that the show decided not to cast you. I thought about it for a second and I said, 'No. You know what I get to do something I’ve always wanted to do and I’m not going to let my childhood and my past rule me for the rest of my life.'"

Hetherington

(Right hand photo by F. Choyce)

So how does Hetherington feel having gone ahead and done the show?

He went quiet for a moment and then said, "I feel like I achieved a dream that I never thought would happen. And I feel really good about being a pioneer, in some way. You know, it’s just an episode of American Gladiators. I’m not like Susan B. Anthony, but I do think it’s really cool to be able to represent an entire community for the first time in 25 years. That makes me feel like I did good work."

To learn more about Sean Hetherington or for information about his next stand-up comedy peformance on August 12 in West Hollywood visit his his MySpace page or seanhetherington.com.