A picture-perfect gay coupledubbed 'The Chippendales' by their competitorswon CBS TV's The Amazing Race Aug. 21.
Reichen Lehmkuhl and Chip Arndtwho CBS simply labeled 'married'crossed the finish line in Phoenix after a four-continent, 24-city, 44,000-mile race around the world against 11 other teams.
'The hardest part of this race was to open up to the other people on it,' Arndt, 36, said. 'To show a lot of wonderful people that are here that we're just like them. We're Americans, we're teammates of these guys, and we just happen to be gay. And we love to be here on this [ winner's ] mat.
'There's no way I could've gotten through this without Reichen's support and patience,' he said. 'And what I realized throughout the race was how much I need him and how much he needs me. And in the end, people look at both Reichen and myself and they see love, and they realize that Reichen and I are partnersand together, we can do anything.'
Lehmkuhl, 28, said: 'This race was about a lot of things. It was about competitiveness. It was about showing the world that gay people can do anything that anyone else can do. But the most important thing I learned is I'm very loved by my partner, and I know that I can feel safe and happy and protected when I'm around him, and I trust him implicitly.'
Earlier in the program Lehmkuhl commented: 'I think a lot of people didn't expect us to get this far because we're gay. I sometimes think people perceive all gay people as really queeny and really effeminate, but I want other people to look at us and see strong, prepared and out to win.'
Lehmkuhl is a pilot and teaches at a flight school in Los Angeles. He was a U.S. Air Force officer and is a graduate of the Air Force Academy.
Arndt is a consultant who arranges financing for, and sets up, film, music and multimedia projects around the world. He attended Harvard and Yale.
Chip and Reichen received $1,000,000 for winning The Amazing Race.