Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing’s Josh Flagg Comes Out

It isn’t really a surprise, however Reality Blurred reporting that for the second time in as many seasons, a cast member on Bravo’s reality series Million Dollar Listing is coming out, but while Madison Hildebrand started as quasi-straight and eventually discovered his sexuality in about 90 seconds of thinly developed narrative, Josh Flagg’s dating life has never been a part of the show, although his Judaism and other aspects of his personal life have been included. That all apparently changes on Tuesday’s episode, which, in a remarkable coincidence, happens to be the same day that Josh’s second book, a memoir that includes discussion of his sexuality, will be released. Last week’s episode hinted at Josh’s coming out when Josh discussed his book with someone who asked if “Colton” knew about certain content in the book, a reference to Colton Thorn, Josh’s long-time boyfriend/partner. Josh’s Facebook profile says he’s been in a relationship with Colton since October 24th, 2007, and a 2009 photo shows that they are obviously together in public, just not on the show. In an interview with San Diego Gay and Lesbian News, Josh said he waited to come out publicly until now because “I did not ever want people to think of me as ‘the gay real estate guy,’ I did not want that to be the only demographic that was watching me on TV or the only demographic to associate with me. I am very glad I did things the way I did because I feel I eased people into it and I made people comfortable with ME, and then kind of just dropped the fact that I like guys instead of girls. Many people knew; many had no idea.”Josh also distinguishes his decision to share his sexual orientation with viewers from Madison’s, saying that “Madison did not beat me to the punch. Madison just decided to come out on national television before I did, but as far as I know, I was out to the people I wanted to be out to well before Madison was. At the rate we are going, we might have to change the title of the show to ‘Two Homos and the Straight Dude.’ … You know Madison chose to come out on TV and make a big to do about it, which I respect. I took a different approach, a more subtle approach, and I kind of like the way Bravo did it … slowly revealing my life, because for the most part no one knows anything about my life other than what they can read on the Internet or what they see on the show with my family, but my private life was always kind of a mystery. I guess I liked that, though.” At the source, there is a truly grating video from the summer of 2010, in which Josh, interviewed, introduces Colton as his boyfriend.