Just Because Mel White of "The Amazing Race" is Paranoid Doesn’t Mean People Don’t Want to Kill Him

How do I know Mel White is a busy guy? Five minutes into our interview to talk about his recent participation on the reality show The Amazing Race with his son, actor/screenwriter Mike White, he’s interrupted by Anderson Cooper’s producer who wants to confirm an appearance on CNN later that day. The day before, White had been on Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

How do I know Mel White is a nice guy? He couldn’t be more apologetic about CNN’s interruption. And he couldn’t be more gracious and unhurried in our conversation, which touched on everything from  how he wished The Amazing Race’s had been more “gay,” to how their battery of psychological tests found him to be their most a “paranoid” participant ever – but for good reason!

Interestingly, despite being perhaps the country’s most well-known gay Christian activist, White was almost an afterthought on the CBS show, stepping in after his son Mike’s first TAR partner bowed out.

White is still not sure the producers of the show are aware that he is perhaps the country’s most well-known gay Christian activist, writing Stranger at the Gate: To be Gay and Christian in America about White’s close dealings with Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Billy Graham, and co-founding (with his husband Gary Nixon) the activist group Soulforce that sponsors “Equality Rides” to college campuses around the country.

AfterElton: First, I wanted to ask how The Amazing Race is different from an Equality Ride.
Mel White: Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve never been on an Equality Ride.

AE: Oh, you haven’t? I saw photos of you! You were just behind the scenes, huh?
MW: Well, I rode a couple days on each ride, but it’s really the students are who do everything about it. In so many ways they are unlike [The Amazing Race] in the sense that they stop so many places along the way and try to make an impact. On The Amazing Race, we slide through every place at such speeds that the only impact we make is on the race itself.

AE: So it’s about the journey on an Equality Ride, but it really is only about the destination on The Amazing Race?
MW: Yeah. That’s very well said. An Equality Ride, yeah, it’s about the journey, and for [The Amazing Race] it’s about the end results of a million dollars.

Mel with son Mike on The Amazing Race

AE: Who’s idea was it for you and your son Mike to participate? Did the show come to you guys?
MW: No, Mike tried out with director Jon Kasdan. They were accepted for Season 13 and then, lo and behold, Casden got nervous and had what my son calls an emotional nervous breakdown over going, and so they had to drop out.

Then the casting director said to Mike, “We’d like you for season 14 without Kasdan. Who would you like to go with you?” [Then she met me at a party], and she went to Michael and said, “I want your Dad.” So they had me do the psychological exams and physical exams and all that kind of stuff and somehow I squeaked through.

AE: They do psychological testing? That’s interesting.
MW: Oh, yeah. Like the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the MMPI. When I finished taking it, the psychiatrist said to me, “You’re the highest on our paranoia scale ever.” And then she started reading the questions that gave it away.

She said, “Do you have people who just don’t like you?” And I said, “Yes.” “Do you have people who really hate you?” Yes. “Do you have people who would like to see you dead?” Yes. “Do ever feel a threat to your life?” Yes. And so my son is sitting there listening to these questions, laughing hysterically, and finally he turns to her and says, “He’s a gay activist! People really are out to get him!”

AE: That’s hilarious. I’m surprised you were sort of the afterthought, because it seems like an obvious pairing. You guys are both celebrities and the father/son thing.
MW: They didn’t know anything about my history, and I don’t think they still do. They never, for example, said Michael wrote School of Rock, and they never said I wrote Stranger at the Gate, they never said anything specific about me. I don’t think they even Googled me. They just took me as a parent and that they liked the parent/son relationship because we do have fun together. And so I was pleased to play second fiddle to my son in terms of all the wonderful things he’s done.