Dan Renzi, from the Miami cast of “The Real World,” is visiting Wilmington as part of his college speaking tour. Renzi will be speaking on campus in the Hawk’s Nest at 7:30 p.m. today.

Seahawk: What schools are you doing this trip?

Dan Renzi: With this trip, I’m going to be speaking at Wilmington. I’ll be speaking at [UNC-] Greensboro. I’ll be speaking at Coastal Carolina in Myrtle Beach. I might be speaking at [UNC-] Asheville, at Vanderbilt in Nashville and then some other ones–I have to fly out a couple times.

Seahawk: What are you coming to UNC-W to talk about?

Renzi: I told a story in my final interview when I was getting on the Real World. The story was about my family, because they really wanted to know about my relationship with my parents. Everyone has a unique experience in their lives. It’ s not a story of oppression or anything. It’s just a story of me growing up as a kid. I was a little gay kid in the middle of Kansas, and this is what happened. And when you tell stories like that you can either tell it as a horrible tragedy of, ‘Oh, look how difficult my life was’ or you can say, ‘It was really bizarre and funny as hell.’ Is your glass half-full or half-empty? And at the time, a lot of time my glass was half-empty and I was always feeling sorry for myself, but looking back on it, it made me the person who I am in the first place. It’s funny as hell. No matter who you are, everyone’s got family, and anyone can relate. Talking about your family is really tangible. So when I’m sitting here talking about a subject that most people don’t under stand–most people aren’t gay, but we all know someone somewhere who is-and how do you relate to that? It’s difficult, because people may automatically be like, ‘Oh, I think gay people are weird.’ Well, guess what? Gay people aren’t going anywhere, and this is a way to relate to them. I’m going to educate you, and you make your choice, based on what I say. If you don’ t like gay people, that’s your right. We all have prejudices, but at least think about it a little, and make it a little more of a human experience. It’s totally lighthearted, totally for fun, and it has a happy ending. I don’ t take myself that seriously, especially now, after embarrassing myself on TV…how can I? People don’t want to be shouted at. People do not want to be preached to about rights, oppression and discrimination. There is a time and place to stand up and shout, but this is not it. People want to listen and have a good time, and if they get something out of it in the process of having a good time, all the better.

Seahawk: What kind of reaction have you gotten?

Renzi: Positive. I can count the number of negative responses on my hand, and I’ve been [speaking at colleges] for four years. There have been a couple of times where people have protested. Three or four people will show up and say they don’t appreciate me being on their campus. First of all, I’m not preaching anything; I’m just talking. Second of all, your school invited me. Someone here wanted to hear what I have to say. If you don’t like what someone’s saying, walk away. If you don’t like “The Real World,” turn the channel. This is not an agenda…it’s for fun.

Seahawk: What’s the one thing you want students to take away from this?

Renzi: I don’t know . . . just to have a good time. It’ s really just for fun. I think that’s a lot more beneficial because when people associate what I have to say with something good, it’s going to be a lot easier for them to deal with.

Seahawk: What’s one of the biggest challenges gays will face in the next ten years?

Renzi: The more people fight for civil rights, no matter what group they are and no matter how they are going about doing it, special interest groups exist in pretty much everybody. Everyone on the planet belongs to something, or they could. They have some sort of label that could be slapped on them as saying ‘I am this, and this is what separates me from society, and I’m so oppressed.’ The more people do that, the more it alienates them. The more someone insists that they be appreciated for their differences, the more they are pulling themselves out of the general fold. The whole point of civil rights and the whole point of fighting for acceptance is because you want to be accepted. You want to be on the same even keel as everyone else. No gay people want special rights. That is a ploy by opponents to get people to deny them what they are fighting for. We want to celebrate diversity, but the first thing we should be doing at a celebration is inviting everybody.

Seahawk: What did you learn on “The Real World”?

Renzi: I learned how to not care so much what other people think. First of all I learned that I do care what people think, anyone who says ‘Well I don’t care what other people think’ is lying. We’re all social creatures; we all care what other people think. We do care what other people think, but there’s a lot of power in understanding that about yourself, being able to limit that influence, and pick who you do care about.

Seahawk: What do you think about the show now?

Renzi: I don’t watch it, so I don’t know. [Laughs] I don’t have cable. Right now people take reality TV real seriously. The producers of “The Real World” are the first people to say, ‘you know what, we made up this show for entertainment.’ They don’t do it for social change; they do it because it’s the way [this country] is.

Seahawk: Do you think the show is taken too seriously?

Renzi: No, I think TV is taken too seriously, though. I think people in America watch too much TV. I think MTV has way too much influence on America, and I wish people would read more books, but it’s escapism. It’s not TV’s fault, it’s the individual’s choice. Sometimes, just with media in general, we’re just this really media-hungry society, and we take what we get. We don’t go looking for our own interests.