The Snap Seen 'Round The World

600K views for this moment of Jeopardy fierceness.

Since the clip has gone viral, contestant Louis Virtel has written a piece for Hit Fix. An excerpt:

In the history of "Jeopardy!", I can think of only one contestant who explicitly mentioned his gayness on air, and that was season 28 premiere contestant Glenn Edwards. He discussed singing with the New York City Gay Men's Chorus during his chat with Alex. I will never forget Glenn Edwards. "Jeopardy!" is a show where in a given week you hear a handful of contestant anecdotes about how some guy met his wife, or how some woman met her husband.

You hear clues about straight romance in literature and celebrity straight couples. For whatever reason, you never hear gay contestants open up about their lives and you don't hear much about the lives of gay celebrities and luminaries either. While I don't believe "Jeopardy!" is at all anti-gay (Did you see that clue about gay marriage a few weeks back? Slightly shady!), it makes straightness seem far more acknowledgeable than gayness.

Heteronormativity is an intoxicating comfort for some, especially in remote, internet-challenged areas; in that context, folks like Glenn Edwards are basically my Carrie Nation -- disturbers of the peace who are righteous in their self-ownership. Wish I could've joined him in that distinction. As much as I represented my gayness, I didn't say the word. As a kid growing up in the suburbs who venerated everything about "Jeopardy!", I would've loved seeing an expressive gay contestant own his homosexuality as well as the buzzer.

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