#LGBTQ: Danny Roberts Reflects on ‘The Real World: New Orleans’ – “America Was Much More Homophobic Back Then…”

In 2000, Danny Roberts was one of seven housemates to appear on MTV’s The Real World: New Orleans and overnight became a public face for LGBTQ rights.

The 22-year-old, fresh-faced college graduate was in also in a relationship with Army Capt. Paul Dill, whose full name and face couldn’t even be revealed on air because of the Don’t Don’t Tell policy that barred openly LGBTQ people from serving in the military from 1994 to 2011.

Roberts, now 44, returned to reality TV this week for The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans and but he said it took some doing for him to commit.

It never crossed my mind that this show would be revisited this late in the game.

Most of my cast had tucked this away as a memory and moved on. Going back to revisit that period is fun and exciting, but it also took me back to some things that were better left in the past. It was a lot of anxiety and apprehension.
None of us, as individuals, are people that thrive on drama or seek it out,. Our goal was the opposite: Simply to come to New Orleans and reunite with old friends.

Most of us hadn’t seen in each other in 20 years.”

But within the first two episodes, tension erupted over an alleged homophobic letter that Stoffer wrote shortly after the original series ended, painting (Roberts) as a

dangerous homosexual.

Many viewers will be particularly interested in an episode when Roberts reunites with Dill for the first time since the pair ended their relationship in 2006. The split, he said, was not amicable.

I co-dependently stayed in that relationship for a lot of reasons beyond my own

I felt called to a higher purpose because it was held up by so many as an ideal. I can now look back and realize I just didn’t want to let people down.
After sitting down and talking, I think it became really clear that what happened back then that was negative wasn’t about either one of us, it was about society and what it did to us at the time. It helped me let go of some of the animosity that I still deeply held inside. We held so many outside factors against each other, and that’s unfortunate.

America was much more homophobic back then.

Clearly there’s still plenty of that around, but it was widely accepted to be vocally homophobic back then.”

Roberts also touches on his HIV diagnosis, which he revealed publicly in a 2018 interview with Entertainment Weekly. He learned he was positive in 2011 when he visited his doctor for a regular medical checkup.

Given the circumstances in my life at the time, it didn’t make sense. It was the last thing on my radar, so it was a huge shock. You go through stages of grief ― grieving your old, healthy self ― and realizing you’re now held captive by America’s messed-up health care system. Your life depends on a broken system ― that’s frightening.”

There’s shame and stigma you have to overcome, even to this day,

Roberts currently works as a tech recruiter and has a 5-year-old daughter, Naya, whom he adopted with an ex. He relocated from New York to Vermont in the early days of the COVID pandemic and shortly afterward began dating his current boyfriend, Austin.

You can probably fit the entire LGBTQ population in Vermont on a large bus.

Amazingly, I met a dairy farmer who lives 15 minutes down the road from me. Sometimes in life, you’ve got to believe that the universe is in action.”

As for the positive response that the show has received thus far, Roberts chalks most of that up to old-fashioned nostalgia. Still, he’s wary of how the format has evolved in the years since the original series.

Overall, it’s been a positive experience, but it’s a fine line. I think reality TV does something really negative to many of the people who take part in it. Where we are as a nation right now is very much the outcome of this.