Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, August 15, 2008 Page: 34 of 60
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RIDING THE RAILS:
Daigle is only begin-
ning to parlay his
success —he's
even selling his
clothes on eBay.
II
r
\
Steven Daigle, 'Big Brother's' gay cowboy, was evicted too soon,
but the rodeo champ's success off the show is just beginning
By Arnold Wayne Jones Staff Writer
If everyone gets 15 minutes of fame, Steven
Daigle has been surprised to realize he's closing
in on half an hour.
Daigle is the Dallas man who became known
as "the gay one" on the latest season of the real-
time reality series "Big Brother." After being
unceremoniously booted during week 2, it
seemed likely that Daigle would go the way of
many instant celebrities, being quickly forgot-
ten. But instead, he's just getting started.
"Typically in the gay area, people come up to
me and want to buy me drinks," Daigle admits.
But in mixed crowds, he's found his share of
autograph seekers and wellwishers, too. (He's
even got a stalker, who posts his obsession with
the tall gay rodeo champ on YouTube.)
"People recognize him, they come up to him
as if they know him," says Daigle's sister, Lisa
Sturgeon.
Just why do people feel they know him?
Maybe it's his clear blue eyes, his slightly
crooked smile, his masculine but gentlemanly
demeanor. Probably it's all of those things.
"I've gotten lots of positive feedback from the
gay community," Daigle says. "They say
'Having a normal gay man on TV representing
us as well as you do makes a difference.'"
Indeed, Daigle may be reality TV's first
Average Joe good-guy — neither bearish villain
(embodied by "Survivor" winner Richard
Hatch) nor a preening, flamboyant drama
queen (Dallas' last "Big Brother" contestant
Joshuah, or everyone who's ever appeared on
"Project Runway"). Daigle is just a handsome,
soft-spoken jock, who likes guys but still makes
the ladies swoon.
Not that it always has benefited him. His
friendship on the show with Keesha was gen-
uine, but he learned once he left that fellow
housemate Michelle bad-mouthed him when
she learned he was gay.
"When Michelle thinks you're hot, she wants
sexual attention," he says — and he paid a price
for not reciprocating.
Daigle claims not to have any animosity
toward anyone, but he worries that some of his
friends still in the house might fall victim to
loose cannons like Jerry and Libra.
"The women in that house are so emotional.
I've never seen a pack of girls who attack each
other then love each other then attack," he
explains. "Most of the guys aren't drama stars. I
really, really like Dan as a person. I'd like to see
him go a long way. I like Renny but she's
regarded as disposable [to the other house-
mates]."
Daigle concedes the game was harder than he
imagined — he was ready to go when he did.
"I knew three days before I was going — we
joked about it. You know who's voting for
whom," he says, dismissing the build-up to the
vote that suggested he might be safe. "Julie
[Chen, the host] said to me later, You were
ready to go, weren't you?' Yes I was."
Daigle expected once he was out of the house,
his life would get back to normal, but he's
reevaluating what "normal" means.
He'd never had a real MySpace page before,
for example, but was encouraged to get one
after his eviction. Now he's flooded with e-
mails on a daily basis from fans and old friends
who Want to re-connect.
"It's a little overwhelming when you get into
the online community, the fanatic 'Big Brother'
fans," he says. "I find people who say they
aren't gonna watch the show anymore since I
was voted off."
That might be because of Daigle's heroic
image, including the moment he dropped out of
a game and let another player win a truck — a
huge sacrifice, since days before he entered the
house, Daigle's own truck blew up. He set up a
donation button on MySpace and has had
dozens of donations.
And then there's his clothing.
"I decided to sell clothes I wore on the show
on eBay," he says — a shirt, a UT tank top,
shorts, a hat. He hoped to bring in a few bucks.
But when TMZ.com reported on his efforts,
"one shirt that was up to $120 went up to $600
within 10 minutes and eventually sold for
$1,075," says Daigle, still slightly agog at the fas-
cination.
Daigle also wants to do what he can to
encourage his major passion: gay rodeo. He's
even been invited to attend Best Buck by the
Bay in San Francisco this week, his first compe-
tition in more than a year. And a friend thought
he was so good on camera, he wants Daigle to
co-host a TV pilot for a lifestyle program — "a
campy Martha Stewart Show," he calls it.
Not a bad way to spend 15 minutes at all.
34 I dallasvoice.com I 08.15.08
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Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, August 15, 2008, newspaper, August 15, 2008; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth239025/m1/34/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.