Reichen Lehmkuhl, (born Richard Allen Lehmkuhl; December 26, 1973) is an American lawyer, businessman,

reality show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

winner, former

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a mea ...

, and former occasional actor. A former

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

officer with the rank of captain, he is best known for winning season four of the

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...

game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or Let's Play, demonstrative and are typically directed b ...

The Amazing Race ''The Amazing Race'' is an adventure reality game show franchise in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. The ''Race'' is split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselves in forei ...

'' with his then-

partner Partner, Partners, The Partner, or, The Partners may refer to: Books * ''The Partner'' (Grisham novel), by John Grisham, 1997 * ''The Partner'' (Jenaro Prieto novel), 1928 * ''The Partners'' (book), a 1983 book by James B. Stewart * ''Partner'' (m ...

Chip Arndt Willis Chapman "Chip" Arndt Jr. (born October 2, 1966) is an American gay activist, best known as a winner of ''The Amazing Race 4'' in 2003 with former partner Reichen Lehmkuhl. Arndt attended Hotchkiss School, Yale University, and Harvard Un ...

, and for his much publicized 2006 relationship with pop singer

Lance Bass James Lance Bass (; born May 4, 1979) is an American singer, dancer, actor, film, and television producer. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the bass singer for the American pop boy band NSYNC. NSYNC's success led Bass to work in film ...

Early life

After Lehmkuhl's parents, a policeman and a nurse, divorced when he was five, his family moved to

Norton, Massachusetts Norton is a New England town, town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, and contains the villages of Norton Center, Massachusetts, Norton Center and Chartley, Massachusetts, Chartley. The population was ...

, and his mother remarried. Sometime after 2002, he changed his first name legally from ''Richard'' to ''Reichen''. Lehmkuhl graduated from the

United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and Uni ...

. He has since advocated for gay rights in the military as a spokesperson for

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network OutServe-SLDN was a network of LGBT military personnel, formed as a result of the merger between OutServe and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. OutServe-SLDN was one of the largest LGBT employee resource groups in the world. OutServe was ...

''The Amazing Race''

Lehmkuhl was working simultaneously as a physics teacher at Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences,

flight instructor A flight instructor is a person who teaches others to operate aircraft. Specific privileges granted to holders of a flight instructor qualification vary from country to country, but very generally, a flight instructor serves to enhance or evaluate ...

, and

in Los Angeles when he was approached by a

casting director In the performing arts industry such as theatre, film, or television, casting, or a casting call, is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra (acting), extra for a particular role or part in a scr ...

for ''The Amazing Race''.Reichen Lehmkuhl bio
via ''Amazing Race'' site on CBS Lehmkuhl and

were a couple during the competition but have since split. Lehmkuhl moved to

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

briefly after his win on ''The Amazing Race'', but before all episodes had been broadcast. Reichen's spending habits at that time caused speculation that he had won ''The Amazing Race'' — and that he and Arndt had broken up. During the show, the couple was typically described as "Married" in the subtitles that are used to illustrate the relationship between team members (other teams being, for example, "Best Friends" or "Father-Daughter").

After ''The Amazing Race''

Lehmkuhl had a cameo in an episode of ''

Frasier ''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons. It premiered on September 16, 1993, and ended on May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey (screenwriter), Peter Case ...

'' in September 2003 as "Impossibly Handsome Man" followed by a cameo on "

The Drew Carey Show ''The Drew Carey Show'' is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from September 13, 1995 to September 8, 2004. Set in Cleveland, Ohio, the series revolved around the retail office and home life of "everyman" Drew Carey, a fictionalized ...

." Lehmkuhl hosted ''The Reichen Show'' on

Q Television Network Q Television Network was a shortlived American cable television channel which aired programming targeted to the lesbian, gay, and bisexual audiences.David Bauder"Three new television networks seeks (sic) out gay and lesbian audiences" '' The Da ...

until Q Television ceased operations in May 2006. His autobiography ''Here's What We'll Say'', about his time in the Air Force under the military's official "

Don't ask, don't tell "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on military service of non-heterosexual people, instituted during the Clinton administration. The policy was issued under Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 on December ...

" policy, was released by Carroll and Graf on October 28, 2006. ''

The New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' reported in November 2010 that the book had been adapted into a screenplay. He published a

beefcake Beefcake is a performance or a form of glamour photography depicting a large and muscular male body. Beefcake is also a publication genre. A role a person plays in a performance may be called ''beefcake''. The term was believed to be first used ...

calendar for several years and has appeared on

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

s, and other reality television shows. On May 1, 2007, the LGBT-interest television network

here! Here TV is an American premium television network targeting LGBT audiences. Launched in 2002, Here TV is available nationwide on all major cable systems, fiber optics systems, and Internet TV providers as either a 24/7 premium subscription channe ...

announced that Lehmkuhl had joined the cast for the third season of its original gothic soap opera, ''

Dante's Cove ''Dante's Cove'' is an American LGBT-oriented supernatural soap opera which aired on here! from October 7, 2005 through December 21, 2007. Created and written by Michael Costanza and directed by Sam Irvin, the series combines elements of the hor ...

''. He plays the role of Trevor, originally described as "a business school graduate who comes to Dante's Cove looking to find himself." GLAAD Benefit featuring TV Star Reichen Lehmkuhl and friends

GLAAD Benefit featuring TV Star Reichen Lehmkuhl and friends

Lehmkuhl starred in ''

My Big Gay Italian Wedding ''My Big Gay Italian Wedding'' is a play written by Anthony J. Wilkinson that premiered off-Broadway in 2003, at the Actor's Playhouse in New York City. In September 2009, an updated version co-starring Scott Evans and with choreography by J. Au ...

'', an off-Broadway production from its opening May 5, 2010, in New York City to July 24, 2010. A percentage of ticket sales promoted legalization of same-sex marriages in the US through Broadway Impact. LGBT-interest network

Logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

announced on June 3, 2010, that Lehmkuhl and boyfriend, model Rodiney Santiago had joined the cast of Logo's reality series, '' The A-List: New York''. The series was cancelled after two seasons. Since the airing, Lehmkuhl and Santiago are no longer a couple. He released an album, ''Up to the Sky'', in 2010. He also founded a company LeaseLock.com.

Personal life

In July 2006, former

NSYNC NSYNC (, ; also stylized as *NSYNC or 'N Sync) was an American boy band formed by Chris Kirkpatrick in Orlando, Florida, in 1995 and launched in Germany by BMG Ariola Munich. Their self-titled debut album was successfully released to European ...

band member

told ''

People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

'' that he is gay and in a "very stable relationship" with Lehmkuhl. The couple broke up in January 2007. Bass said they remained "good friends".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lehmkuhl, Reichen 1973 births Living people American people of German descent The Amazing Race (American TV series) contestants American jewelry designers American LGBT military personnel American memoirists American television talk show hosts American gay actors LGBT broadcasters from the United States LGBT memoirists Gay models American gay writers LGBT people from Ohio Writers from Cincinnati Reality show winners United States Air Force Academy alumni Gay military personnel Participants in American reality television series