Bill and Joe were “reprimanded” for kissing during TAR1, say Eric has “issues of his own”

Partners Joe and Bill were eliminated from The Amazing Race 11 on Sunday’s episode, and in an interview with Reality TV World, they were asked about Eric, the very straight man who referred to the gay couple as “old women” and “a bunch of queens” on multiple occasions.

Joe says, “I have feeling that people who say things like that and people who try to come off as ‘butch’ and ‘macho’ more than anybody else are probably the ones that really have their own issues and they probably have more to hide about their own sexuality than meets the eye. I think there’s probably a lot going on there that he [Eric] hasn’t come to terms with or hasn’t come to grips with so he has to kind of run down other people.” Anyone who saw all of season nine knows that he’s probably on to something there.

Bill says the same thing in an interview with AfterElton.com. “It’s kind of hard coming from him. It was just kind of weird. I don’t know where he’s coming from. I think he’s got some issues of his own that he has to deal with. In general, people who try to camouflage their own issues usually take attitudes like that,” he said.

Speaking of being gay, Joe reveals that during The Amazing Race‘s first season, “one time at a PitStop, we hugged and kissed and we actually got reprimanded for it because they could never put it on TV. … I think it’s totally accepted now. I don’t think there’s any problems or any questions whatsoever. I’m really proud of CBS in that regard.”

Bill points out that they “were the first gay couple in a long-term relationship depicted on national television. I think CBS wanted to go there but wasn’t sure what the sponsors and what the public would say about it, and after we made it through that whole season and the show was becoming a success, it became less of an issue. Fortunately for CBS, they’ve been very upfront with their shows in casting lots of ethnic diversity and sexual orientations. They’ve been a groundbreaker, I think.”

In less-consequential news, Joe tells Reality TV World that they bought tens of thousands of dollars worth of airline tickets at one time. Because producers had “changed the rules [since season one] where you could buy tickets — keep buying fully-refundable tickets … I had more than $50,000 worth of airplane tickets in my backpack [in Johannasburg]. We had maxed out two people’s Visa cards just buying tickets trying to get out of there,” he said.