healthy homos

Why Won’t NBC’s The Biggest Loser Let Its Gay Trainers Come Out?

Jillian Michaels is no longer training heavies for NBC’s The Biggest Loser, but with a accusations of being a fraud and a burgeoning personal fitness empire, she’s definitely a newsworthy lass. And like her now-former reality TV training pal Bob Harper, she’s not straight. (Bi supposedly, but we’ve heard there aren’t many romantic men in her life.) But how come she won’t sit down with the LGBT press?

Last year she told Ladies’ Home Journal, “If I fall in love with a woman, that’s awesome. If I fall in love with a man, that’s awesome. As long as you fall in love…it’s like organic food. I only eat healthy food, and I only want healthy love!” And while I can’t find an interview with Harper, he’s a known L.A. gay. (He named his dog Karl, after Lagerfeld, for christ’s sakes.)

But in trying to squeeze in some times with Michaels, the lesbian entertainment site AfterEllen was rebuffed. NBC’s The Biggest Loser machine, now responsible for generating huge revenues for the network, also refused to let the website interview the show’s new female trainer Cara Castronuova — also a lesbian.

Which is too bad, because given gays are biologically more inclined to care about health and fitness, The Biggest Loser is a show we love. (We love it for its pornographic privacy violations, too.) We know the show is powered by members of our own. And yet, we’re being told we can’t claim them. NBC has its own reasons for doling out access to the personalities behind its hit show. But letting them pop up on the covers of health magazines, but refusing queer sites, sends a very clear message.

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