Every year, the New Year's Eve broadcasts on the major networks like CNN and NBC are the same: the stations show thousands of people packed body-to-body in the middle of Times Square in New York City to watch the ball drop. Once the countdown is finished and the new year begins, confetti is dropped on the crowd, and the cameras pan to couples kissing while Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” plays in the background. This year, one of the first couples featured during the broadcast was a gay couple, Ricky Locci and DJ Petrosino, who embraced on national television.
The two went to Times Square for New Year’s Eve on a whim to celebrate Locci’s first year in NYC and were spotted by a production assistant who asked them if they wanted to kiss on TV. The couple, who’ve been together for a little over a year, agreed, put on the mandatory Planet Fitness sponsored hats, waited for the countdown, and, just like that, became a viral moment online.
A conservative X account called @EndWokeness clipped their kiss, and at the time of publication, the video has over 14 million views. A woman named Tara also uploaded a video of ESPN's SportsCenter host Scott Van Pelt reacting to seeing two men kiss on television — that clip got over 10 million views on Instagram.
“We got a lot of love, not just some people we knew, but people all over the internet that just appreciated it,” Locci tells Out in an interview a few days after their viral moment. “And then we got a lot of hate.” The couple said that they received messages and saw comments that were left under the videos of people saying that they’d be stoned or accused them of pushing “propaganda” and corrupting children.
Both Locci and Petrosino were excited about the opportunity to share their love on such a large platform and reveled in their newfound attention after they left Times Square to meet up with some friends at a piano bar. While there, their kiss played on the television, and their friends told the other patrons it was them, and everyone cheered. The support they've gotten is the thing they'll take away from this whole experience.
"Given our political climate right now, I think any kind of visibility is important. Even if we think it's already been said and already been out there, I don't think we can [push for visibility] enough," Petrosino says.
His partner adds that New Yorkers admittedly sometimes live in a bubble, and there isn't much fear of retribution for being outwardly queer. For Locci, the positive reaction they've reminds him of how much it means to people who don't live in the city or who may not live in blue states/cities. The homophobia and the hateful rhetoric that were spewed at them started to affect them, Locci says, "but the actual moment was pretty phenomenal," and it was "such a special moment" because they're happy to continue to share and promote any representation they can.
