Here is an article from The Advocate. I don't think there are any spoilers here, so I think it's appropriate to post it here.

http://www.advocate.com/html/stories/875/875_amazing.asp

Among the three teams that include gay members on the current season of CBS’s The Amazing Race reality game show, Andrew and Dennis from Lexington, Ky., had perhaps the most dramatic back story: Andrew, 21, is an openly gay cheerleader, and his dad, Dennis, 48, is a Southern Baptist who still disapproves of his son’s sexuality. Eliminated in the third episode on October 16, father and son open up to Advocate.com about their own family values.
By Bruce C. Steele
An Advocate.com exclusive posted October 17, 2002

The Amazing Race, a reality game-show race around the world now in its third incarnation on CBS, has a knack for finding two-person teams with an interesting dynamic: bickering couples, best friends who bounce off one another like comedy duos, and, of course, the gay teams. The first two seasons saw San Diego’s Team Guido, a long-term couple who played hard, wore matching outfits, and came in an impressive third, and Danny and Oswald, fun-loving Latino pals from Miami who shopped their way around the world, often sought help from four-star hotels, and came in fourth.

The new season offers a new twist, with three gay contestants on three different teams, each with its own tensions. There’s Aaron and Arianne, the real-life Will and Grace, who have been making and breaking alliances with the other youthful teams, and Ken and Gerard, the jolly, 40-ish, balding brothers who can’t help but entertain both the other players and home viewers with their banter and their pratfalls.

The third gay contestant, until his team was eliminated in the third round on October 16, was Andrew, a 21-year-old cheerleader and college student from Kentucky, traveling with his conservative Southern Baptist dad, Dennis, 48. Together they braved a donkey in Mexico that refused to pull their cart (they picked the donkey cart over a sky-diving option), a dive with dolphins to retrieve a clue from the sea bottom, and, in their final effort, a challenge to pilot a British tank around a muddy figure-eight track in less than 90 seconds to win a pass to directly to the race’s next pit stop.

Father and son tank team

Unfortunately, even the “Fast-Forward” pass won with the tank challenge wasn’t enough to pull them out of last place after a disastrous airport experience in Cancun, Mexico, where they wound up on a flight out many hours behind the rest of the pack. Andrew even tried calling an airline with a sob story about his sick mother (she wasn’t) to try to get on an earlier flight. While his cunning impressed Dennis, it wasn’t enough to speed their trip. When they were the last to arrive at a pit stop in Scotland, they were eliminated from the race.

The day after their elimination round was broadcast, Andrew and Dennis called Advocate.com from their New York publicity tour.

Advocate.com: So, where were you watching the show last night?
Andrew: We watched it in New Jersey with Ken and Gerard and Zach and Flo and Drew, one of the twins.

Ken and Gerard

Of course, you all knew what was coming. So what happened in the Cancun airport?
Dennis: We just couldn’t get out of the airport. Everything was booked. They didn’t show this on the show so much, but we were actually standing in line with two other teams. The flights just booked up right before our eyes. Andre and Damon got a flight at 10:25 a.m., Teri and Ian got a flight at 11:55 a.m., and we didn’t get a flight until 8 p.m. We were literally standing in line together.

Andrew: So it didn’t come down to us not being smart enough or strong enough. It came down to pure luck.

Dennis: Just the fact that we didn’t shove them out of the way to get to the counter . We didn’t think being that close to each other that it would matter. We just figured we’d all fly together, and then we’d beat ’em once we got to Heathrow . But that didn’t happen.

So, Andrew, who were you talking to on the phone when you were telling the story about your mother being sick?
Andrew: I was actually on the phone with, I believe it was American Airlines customer service. And you know, I’m not a liar—I’m a happy, honest guy, I swear. But you’ve got to play the game or the game’s going to play you, so I tried to sappen up my voice and tried to get the lady to help me out more. And she did, she really did.

And Dennis, what were you thinking while Andrew was on the phone telling this story?
Dennis: I tell you what was going through my mind: I was really proud of him at that point. I guess if there was one defining moment for me in watching him become equal and a true team mate, not just a father-son any more, it was at that moment, because I didn’t even know he was going to get on the phone and start trying to book those things. I figured, OK, here I am, I’m the dad, that’s my job. I turned around and he’s ahead of me and starting to do this, and I was like, That’s really cool. So I just sat there and listened to him lie to that lady.

And what did your mother think, Andrew?
Andrew: My mother thought it was hysterical, and she didn’t mind that I used her as an excuse. She said, “Use your resources.”

Dennis: I think she liked the reference. She said, “Oh, I made it on the show!”

Andrew lying on the phone

How did you decide who got to drive the tank?
Dennis: Well, we had a division of labor before we ever started.

Andrew: It was equal-opportunity employment.

Dennis: If it was a physical thing, that’s Andrew. He’s got the youth and endurance on his side. If it was an experience thing, or driving—I did all the driving. You know, I’ve driven a lot of different pieces of equipment, and actually I’ve got a piece of equipment that’s much, much smaller than that but that drives with the sticks like that instead of a wheel. I don’t know if you could tell that, but it had two sticks—

I couldn’t tell what you were doing to drive that tank; I was just glad I wasn’t doing it.
Dennis: So even though that thing was probably 10 times bigger than the little soldier I’ve got, it drove just the same, so that was experience. Andrew has the energy, and I have the experience. That was an experience moment.

Andrew: He was the brain. I was the brawn.

You came in with 15 seconds to spare.
Dennis: And that was the first try. The instructions on the clue said you get as many tries as possible, and one of the guys that was there from the production crew said that he had tried all day the day before and had never been able to make it in time. I did it the very first time.

What was the hardest challenge you faced on the race?
Dennis: That was our dumb mistake with the donkeys. We should have jumped out of the plane instead of riding the donkeys. We made a mistake. We honestly did. Because of the preparation and training involved in the skydiving, we thought that the donkeys would be as fast if not a little bit faster. And we didn’t realize how slow a donkey was.

At least you did fall off yours, like the two girls from Harvard Law School.
Dennis: Well, actually, that was a benefit to them because since their cart broke, they went back and jumped , and that put them ahead of us. We’d have been better off if we had fallen off.

Andrew: Of course, we’re from Kentucky. We were imagining these fast thoroughbreds racing around the Derby. Of course, that was our mistake. Here was this slow freaking donkey.

Dennis: I was expecting it to at least trot along. We’d have been better off to shoot the donkey and drive the cart ourselves. We actually ended up dragging and pushing more than we did riding in the cart.

What was your most memorable moment?
Andrew: After we got out of the tank in Cambridge, England, we were physically exhausted, we were hungry, we were thirsty. We maybe had had nine hours of sleep in 72 hours, and we were just run down and had no strength. And we were covered in mud from the tank, and all of a sudden, we see this bright shiny limo right in front of us and this guy in a tuxedo. And we realized that we get to ride a limo to the pit stop, and that was great. We got to put our feet up and relax a little bit. I got a whole bottle of champagne—my dad doesn’t drink, so I drank the whole thing myself. We just goofed off—we were the boys, hanging out in the back of the limo. For the first time on the race, we just relaxed. We said, “No matter what happens, we’re going to go out with a bang,” and we had an absolute blast on the last leg.

Champagne and limousines

That must have been a long limo ride. How long was it?
Andrew: Pretty long.

Dennis: Actually, yeah, we did transfer vehicles. We didn’t ride the limo the entire way. But from Cambridge to is probably 500 miles.

Andrew: It took about nine hours.

Dennis: But I was shocked that they let us in the limo because as you could see with the tank, we’d just got out of this dirty, nasty, muddy thing. We were pretty nasty. And then he opens the limo door, and I was like, “I don’t know if you’re going to want me to sit in your car.”

Andrew: We were nasty.

Dennis: But they didn’t seem to mind, so we jumped in.

So what did you learn about each other?
Andrew: I learned that my dad can really kick back and have a good time. He’s a very protective father, a very hard worker at his job, and a very straightforward guy, but you know, when the time was right, he’d just kick back and goof off with me and the rest of the teams, and that was really cool, to see a different side of him.

Dennis: It was really neat for me to see Andrew in a more mature . Maybe the maturity is there, and you know, being a dad I wasn’t looking for it before, but to see him grow and take charge… You know, you kind of hate to see him fly from the nest, but it’s also kind of neat to see him soar.

When did Andrew come out to you?
Dennis: That was probably about three years ago.

Andrew: The summer before my senior year of high school. I was 17 years old.

And what did you think about coming out to the whole wide world on The Amazing Race?
Dennis: I have to admit to you I was not comfortable with that. And that was going into the race—and still now. That was a big concern because we do have a difference of opinion there, and that opinion has not changed. But what I hope comes across is that even though we have an issue that we don’t agree on, and still don’t, we can love each other. He’s my son, he’ll always be my son, and what would I gain if I tried to sever any kind of relationship with him?

Andrew: I think the thing that we really wanted to show is, you know, we’re different: All fathers and sons are. We’re night and day, but at the same time we’re family. I think there are too many parents out there kicking their kids out of the house and disowning them because they’re gay. Well, I just hope that we show that whether you’re black or white, gay or straight, Jewish or Christian, you are family, and there are things more important than just your personality and your character. I think those are true family values: when your father is willing to stand up next to you and do such a crazy adventure with you in front of the entire world.

You know, we’re from Lexington, Ky., and that’s part of the Bible belt. There are a lot people at home who are extremely supportive and a lot of people who won’t talk to me. That’s part of it. I’m only 21—the youngest person to run The Amazing Race—and I’m really proud to stand up and say, “This is who I am—every bit of me.” I think the show portrayed me just like I am: I’m a perky, happy goof-off all of the time, and I was just really proud of myself for summoning up the strength just to stand up and say, “This is me.”

A lot of the reality shows have gay characters, gay people on them, but they all seem to be 30, 40, 50 years old, whatever, and here’s me, just turned 21, and I’m already willing to just be myself, and I don’t care what other people think of me. I just want to stand up and show that. And I think that really went over well.

You were on the show with at least two other gay contestants. Apparently you got to know them afterwards. Did you get to talk to them at all while you were on the race?
Andrew: Yes, absolutely. I got to talk to both of them. Ken is a great guy. I believe he’s 40. He’s a superfun, hilarious guy, just a genuine soul. He’s so nice, such a great guy.

Ken and Gerard are definitely the designated comic relief for the show.
Dennis: They’re hilarious. They really are that way too.

Andrew: They’re hilarious all the time.

They’re very fun.
Andrew: Aaron and I are a little bit more different. I’m an extreme optimist. I’m perky and smiling all the time, and he’s a little bit pessimistic and a little bit more, um, dramatic. Maybe a little bit more rough around the edges. But that’s just his character, you know? People are different. I’m more animated. He’s dramatic.

So what’s next for you, Andrew?
Andrew: I actually work with underprivileged kids in downtown Lexington—I’m a youth development coordinator at a place called the Manchester Center, which is funded by United Way. And I have a Web site up. I’ve acted since I was maybe 2 or 3 years old, and I’m going to continue to do that in my community. I’m open for anything. I made this dream come true, so I’m going to keep fighting for the rest. If Will & Grace comes knocking, I’m going to open the door!

Dennis, what about you?
Dennis: I’m the more practical one of the two—that’s my role as the dad—so I’ve been back to work, and I plan to continue to work. I run a family entertainment center, so it’s a good place for families to come and have a good time. So we’re strong with the family values and the family relationships.

And what do the folks you work with think of your appearance on The Amazing Race?
Dennis: Oh, they enjoyed it. They’ve been really supportive—they had to carry the ball while I was gone, so they’ve been really supportive of the whole thing. The first two weeks, we had big parties at my business because we had a big enough room for everybody, so it has been great.

Going into this race, I guess I had some reservations because Andrew and I do have this mainly one issue that we struggle with. And because of it, some people are not going to like him, and because of it, some people are not going to like me. So I knew we weren’t going to be popular with everyone, but the important thing is we like each other. So we’ll work through the other issues.

Andrew: We refuse to live for everyone else. We were living for ourselves during the race.

Are you happy with getting to see the parts of the world you got to see?
Andrew: Absolutely. You know, I was the youngest person in the race and the only one never out of the U.S. That was a huge adventure for me: My first time out of the U.S., and here I am shoved in this insane scenario doing these crazy stunts. What more could you ask for? I got to go all over Mexico and England and Scotland. Not only that, I got to swim with dolphins and ride in a tank and ride on jet skis and all kinds of wild stuff. I couldn’t have asked for more. It was truly, truly amazing. That’s why they call it The Amazing Race.