A Gay Icon From Reality TV’s Early Years Makes a Hesitant Return
GRAFTON, Vt. — When you cross into Vermont from New York, the road opens up and the Green Mountains emerge. Make it to Grafton (population: 645), and your cell service largely evaporates.
This was where, on a recent day, Danny Roberts was standing in the doorway of the tiny cabin in the woods where he lives with his 6-year-old daughter.
His eyes are crinkly now; his sandy hair seems uncertain of its next move. He has grown out a beard. His daughter was out for the day, Mr.
Roberts said. His mother, who was visiting for the week, was watching her. “It’s kind of the elephant in the room with my family,” he said. “We don’t talk about the reality TV thing.” When he first put himself out there, in the ninth season of “The Real World,” he was young and a bit naïve.
