Real World's Danny Roberts single again...

Remember Danny Roberts, the openly gay housemate on MTV's "The Real World New Orleans"? During his stay in the house, Danny was in a relationship with Army Capt. Paul Dill, whose face was blurred whenever he came for a visit. If his identity had been revealed, he would have been kicked out of the military because, yes, even in 2006, it's not OK to be openly gay in the military.

Anyway, six years after the show, Roberts and Dill have split up and Roberts did an interview with "The Advocate" that appears in the Nov. 21 issue. (A likttle self-promotion here: I have a companion piece with the Roberts interview in the magazine about people who are "Suddenly Single.")

But enough about me. Here is some of what Danny had to say:

Dill left the military in 2003 but for two years, Danny lived with him in North Carolina while he was still in the Army:
"Ironically, moving in together was the beginning of our undoing...We could not live our lives. We could not be a normal couple. We lived in so much fear. We were forced to live underground."

On the break-up: "Paul and I are better friends now. That's not to say it wasn't ugly when we first broke up."

On being single again: "I don't think anyone truly wants to be single. We all would love to be with someone. But it is so nice to be on my own, to do what I want and to find out who i want to be."

Working in real estate for two years: "Actually, that got a little strange. I had little problem with people contacting me who weren't interested in buying homes...I don't know what they wanted. I'll just say there are a lot of lonely people in the world."

Roberts' post "Real World" speaking career: "It's something that is offered to just about every fool who's been on any reality show. So there's nothing original about that part of it. But I realized pretty quickly that there was a niche I could fill. I could go to colleges and share my coming out experiences or talk with people about 'don't ask, don't tell.'"