LANCE IS EXCITED TO HAVE FEMALE LACEY AS A PARTNER ON "...STARS"

Dancing With Stars Producers have come forward to talk about their first gay competitor and to tell the truth about the partnership of Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. It seems like there was never the intention to have a male-male partnership on the show, however the pairing of couples is not random according to the producers:

Think the producers behind "Dancing with the Stars" find it easy to match up the show's celebrities with their professional partners? Think again.

"It's not random at all," Deena Katz, senior producer for the award-winning ABC reality show, told the Daily News of the pairings.

Height, personality, looks and even age were considered for this season's cast match-ups, which Katz says took about a week to hash out.

Further on in the article we see a deeper discussion about having Lance on the show. They talk about his involvement and how some people think viewers would react to having two males dancing with each other on Prime Time TV:

Which begs the question: Should openly gay contestant Lance Bass have been paired with a man?

USA Dance doesn't have explicit rules against same-sex competitive couples, Prince says - even though the pairing is not a common practice in the U.S.

"He happens to be gay, but that's not why he's on our show," Katz explained. "We're not a dating show - although sometimes it ends up that way."

Bass' manager, Cindy Owen, said the network "never had the intention" of partnering her client with a man, adding "he's very excited to have Lacey [Schwimmer] as a partner."

According to GLAAD president Neil G. Giuliano, Bass' participation in the show "presents a great opportunity for audiences to see gay people included in pop culture in a matter-of-fact kind of way."

"Could it be great to see two gay dancers paired on a show like this? Absolutely! We know that there are many competitive gay and lesbian dance pairs out there, and that might be something ABC and other networks' dance shows would want to consider including in the future."

Chuck Stewart, founder of Out Dancing Ballroom, a same-sex dancing troupe from Los Angeles, says that the show's producers can do whatever they want, but may be limited by more conservative expectations.

"Who do I think is afraid? The advertisers," he said. "I personally think if you got two hot guys together dancing, people will watch." [SOURCE]