::: www.dannyandpaul.com :::

You be the judge, as two very different gay guys heat up the new season of MTV's Road Rules.

TO HEAR MTV TELL IT, NICK and Danny are complete opposites: Lady and the Tramp. "I wouldn't classify myself as a slut," shrugs Danny, 21, one of six members of the recently premiered season of Road Rules (called Road Rules: X-Treme), which sends a group on challenges to either earn a final reward, or get booted out. Bios of the boys, who are dining on Chinese food at P.F. Chang's in Pasadena, Calif., allude to Danny's "impressive" sexual history while calling Nick "wholesome." "I don't cheat on my boyfriend," Danny states, noting he's been happily coupled for over a year. "I don't sleep around. Yeah, I'm more sexually experienced, but I've been out for over six years."

"I think its funny," adds Nick, 22, who isn't part of the original six, meaning he replaced someone who got voted off the show. "'Virgin' sounds very pious—kind of like a prude. I came out when I was 19, versus Danny, who came out when he was 14. A lot can happen in five years." He is quick to note that "vir-gin" for him refers only to anal intercourse: "I'm not willing to do it just to get it out of the way." Still, says Nick, who's single, it's not like he's waiting for marriage. "I'm not in a rush to get it done, but it will happen sooner or later."

No matter the guys' differences, their appearance on the extreme-sports reality show marks the first time the series has had two gay male cast members. Nick, passed over in the original auditions, had resigned himself to being reality-free when he got the call (on his birthday, no less) that someone had been voted off the show and he was needed to fill their shoes. Both men agree that what fueled their desire to hit the small screen was the chance to tell their stories.

"My freshman year of college the New Orleans season of The Real World was on, and I was just dealing with my own issues of coming out," Nick recalls. "Danny Roberts was a great example for me. I realized the effect that someone could have on a viewer, and I loved the idea that I could have that effect on somebody." While Nick's coming-out experiences were very positive, Danny's were not as great initially. "I came out to my mom when I was 14, and she grounded me for being gay," he recalls. "But now we have a great relationship." The same cannot be said of his estranged father, who Danny says was physically abusive to him and his mother. "He doesn't know I'm gay," Danny notes. "I don't really care if he finds out."

Danny was initially nervous about joining the show, not for fear of being out on television but because of potential homophobia among his RV-mates— a fear that turned out to be somewhat valid. "During the first couple weeks that I was there, when certain gay things ere talked about, they would say, Earmuff,'" recalls Danny, who singles out cast member Derrick as the main
offender. ("Earmuff" is a reference to the film Old School, in which a child would cover his ears when something inappropriate was said.) "It was only directed to the gay stuff. I confronted Derrick, but all he kept saying was 'If s part of a movie.' Just because its part of a movie doesn't make it right." For the record, Nick didn't encounter anything he perceived to be homophobic.

But neither has any regrets. "It was one of the best experiences of my life," says Danny, who's currently on break from college in New Jersey but plans to resume in the fall. Nick, who intends to return to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to complete his senior year, adds, "I would do it again, no questions asked." Jeffrey Epstein