If there is one constant in this whole universe, it’s a LGBT presence at The Real
The Sunnier
World house. This year’s casting directors chose 21-year-old Derek Chavez as the
house’s openly gay ambassador. Hailing from a tiny New Mexico town 20 minutes
from the Texas border, Derek told The Rage Monthly about his bold break from a
Side of
“smalltown boy” into the “big time.”
“It’s called Loving, New Mexico. Everybody knows everybody’s business, there
are like 2,000 people. You either have to play sports or work to keep yourself enter-
tained. I knew I wasn’t meant to be in a small town, so as soon as I graduated, I was
The Real WoRld
out!” “Out” as in outta here, that is. Derek initially made the leap from the closet
door during his senior year in high school.
“I wasn’t full-force out to everybody. It was just a select few people,” explained
Derek
An Inter
vIew wIth
Derek. “But I was seeing a guy who was completely out. He told me that if I wasn’t
going to tell people I was gay, then he would. I figured I would do the honors
myself since it’s my life.” Pushy boyfriends notwithstanding, Derek graduated vale-
dictorian of his high school class. Free to attend virtually any school he wanted, he
Chavez
chose Arizona State because according to him, “It was close enough to home if I
ever needed to go back, but far enough so that I could live my life the way that I
wanted to live it.”
When the time inevitably came to come out, he went straight for the family
matriarch. “My grandma is who I consider my mom,” Derek elaborated. “I actually
of The Real WoRld: CanCun
brought my boyfriend home to meet her. She said, ‘I’m happy as long as you’re
being safe and as long as you’re happy with yourself, then I’ll be proud of you no
matter what.’ Her son (my uncle), who I consider my older brother, he’s gay as well.
by david vera
She told me when I was little that I’d better not grow up to be a homo too.”
The closet was one thing, but having to tell his family about being part of some-
thing that has been linked to every type of debauchery this side of the Rockies was
a different story. “When I told my mom she was like, ‘Oh my god, does that mean
that I’m going to have to see you making out with somebody or getting drunk on
TV?’ I’m like, ‘Probably, mom! I’m going to be in Cancun during Spring Break!’ She’s
just afraid that other people’s moms will have questions to ask her. I’m like, ‘Who
cares? They all know! Anything I would’ve done on the show to embarrass you, I
would’ve done at home!’”
Of course, all that embarrassing fun wasn’t going to come easy. The show’s infa-
mously arduous auditioning process still stood in the way. “My roommate Amber
had this pass to skip the line and go straight to the interview. And this line was like
a mile long. So we skipped the line, and the first part was an open interview. You
could tell people were trying to impress everybody; there was a guy who said he
went to the tip of Alaska and went backpacking all the way to South America—
outrageous stories like that. All I said was, ‘I’m from a town of 2,000 people!’
They said, ‘if we like you, we’ll call you back.’ It wasn’t until 11:30 that night that
they called back and told me to come in for a one-on-one interview. So then I made
a home video and sent it in overnight. They loved it and so they flew someone
down to Phoenix to do another one-on-one with me. It was a looong interview; I
had to do a “confessional” too. They called two weeks later and said, ‘We’re going to
fly you to finals!’ Four days after THAT, a guy called and told me I was on the show.
I was like…I stayed completely quiet. He said, ‘Dude, is that your reaction?’ I said, ‘I
really want to scream like a little girl right now, but I’m going to wait ‘til I hang up!’
(laughter). It was a LONG process but it was definitely worth it.
Apparently Derek wasn’t alone in this stressful waiting game. He and his fellow
cast member, Jonna were both being interviewed for the show while working at
the same place. “Emilee and C.J. had kind of mutual friends, so when Jonna and
I showed up together, I thought, ‘Oh cool, maybe that’s the way they’re going to
do the whole show—people knowing each other. But it turns out we were the
only ones. It didn’t really affect anything too much, but it did help the relationship
between Jonna and me become stronger. We’re best friends now. I just called her
July 2009 | RAGE monthly 53
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