Valentine’s Day is coming up!!! So let’s take a look at something romantic: the record for longest kiss. Currently, the record for Guiness Book of World Records gives World’s Longest Kiss to a couple in Thailand, who locked lips for over 58 hours. But the record for Longest Kiss here in the United States (and was World’s Longest Kiss for a year in 2010) is held by TWO MEN: Matty Daley and Bobby Canciello.
On September 19th, 2010, Matty (age 20) and Bobby (age 19), kissed for 32 hours, 30 minutes, and 45 seconds. Both were students at The College of New Jersey, and the kiss happened on their campus. Matty and Bobby are both gay, but they were not together–Bobby actually had a boyfriend at the time. But they wanted to “queer up the Guiness Book of World Records,” spread awareness for the LGBTQ community and raise money for the Trevor Project, a non-profit focused on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth.
To break the record for World’s Longest Kiss, the two had to stand the ENTIRE time, with their lips touching the entire time, and they could not take any breaks or wear adult diapers. Food/water had to be ingested through a straw in the side of their mouth, and they couldn’t go to the bathroom. The hardest part, they said, was having to stand for 33 hours straight. They came up with hand signals so they could communicate during the kiss, and apparently listened to a lot of music.
Matty and Bobby’s kiss was livestreamed, and over 500,000 people watched it. Although there was some homophobic backlash, the responses were largely positive. In response, Bobby said, “It brought a lot of the community together, gay or straight…I just hope we can encourage people not to be afraid.”
As Stephen Colbert reported on September 29th, 2010, “That’s right folks. The world’s longest kiss is a gay kiss.” Now, the world’s longest kiss is back to being a straight kiss (dang it, Thailand). But the longest kiss in the beautiful United States of America? Yep. Still gay.
Happy Valentine’s Day.