“The thing I took out of being on The Block was that they didn’t shy away from the tension surrounding the gay community,” Mitch, 56, says. “[The show] is going to air in houses around the nation, so to have debate is good.
“Sometimes the words you use, you don’t mean them in an offensive way. But when people hear them – based on their experience – they hear it in a different way. I’m really proud of the fact that the show didn’t edit anything. It was an important discussion.”
Now, several months after that episode was filmed, does he think Cam meant any malice?
“God, I can’t believe that. He’s not a homophobe.”
Cam isn’t the only one to have faced negative comments online – Mark and Mitch have received their share of bad feedback from viewers, based on their sexuality.
“There are people who hide behind keyboards,” Mark explains. “We’ve been shocked by how nasty some people can be online. We had some negative stuff and we had some direct messages that were pretty awful.”
It hasn’t all been negative, though, with Mark saying, “There are a lot of people who are very supportive of us.”