Utahns in "The Real World": Episode 1

In Week 1 of the first “Real World,” the two Utahns weren’t featured much.

Baya Voce-Hoffman, 21, was barely featured at all, as a matter of fact. Other than one of her roommates being surprised that she’s from Salt Lake City and (gasp!) she’s NOT a Mormon, she had very little screen time. Oh, and she really, really wants to be a dancer.

Chet Cannon, 23, is a Mormon. And that didn’t seem to make much of an impression on anybody, either.

He made a bigger impression for what he’s not. Which is gay. Several of the roommates thought he might be. Even though he says he’s “straight as an arrow” and sings, “I may be metrosexual but it’s not a sin.”

He’s also a virgin, although he talks about sex. A lot. He’s a bit of a gossip. And, when he finds out one of his roommates was in the Army, he said, “I wanted to be in the military. I just never manned up to it.”

Most of the episode was devoted to J.D., the dolphin trainer who overcame a tough childhood (and who IS gay); Ryan, the Iraq vet who drinks too much; and Katelyn, the first transgendered person on “The Real World.”

Chet doesn’t initially believe that Katelyn used to be a man, eliciting this response from a roommate: “Oh, that’s right. You’re from Utah.”

You’ve got to figure that, at some point, the whole Utah and Mormon vs. non-Mormon angle will come into play. But not in Episode 1.