August 25, 2000
By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
Richard Hatch walked around
naked, caught a lot of fish and got on a lot of people's nerves before
winning the million-dollar prize on "Survivor."
And Chicago's gay community
is loving all of the attention being lavished on a man one of his cast
mates referred to as "Darth Gaydar."
"I found myself rooting
for him to win because there was an initial gut reaction to wanting `one
of ours' to win," says Rick Garcia, director of Equality Illinois, Illinois'
statewide gay rights group. "There was also this sense of pride that some
gay guy beat out a Navy SEAL. Many people in the military think that gays
shouldn't serve because we're bad for morale and are too weak to serve.
Richard is evidence that this isn't true."
But Richard also was portrayed
as backstabbing, conniving and vindictive--even more so than the other
cutthroat personalities on the show. "I think that's why he won," Garcia
says.
Adds David Zak, artistic
director of Bailiwick Repertory: "I don't think Richard was singled out
because he was gay. The show reduced all the people on there down to easily
observed denominations. `Survivor' was created for entertainment value
, so I'm sure that how they edited the episodes had something to do with
how everyone came off, too. But I think that anyone who can defy gay stereotypes
and still win a million dollars deserves it."
Frank Vesely, a stylist
at the Hair Loft downtown, says he's not worried about the general public
identifying the gay population in general with the way Hatch was on television.
"In any group of people,
there's always an array of personalities and characters," he said. "I think
the portrayal of gay people is getting better on TV, but it takes time.
Richard is just one side of what a gay man is like."
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