Fitness model and personal trainer Scott Herman first stepped into the public eye when he joined the cast of the 21st season of The Real World, set in Brooklyn, N.Y. Now Herman has taken to the Web to talk about his support for marriage equality after posing for the No H8 Campaign, a move that he says, despite rumors to the contrary, he didn’t do to boost his career.

“If I was going to do something for monetary gain, why would I pick a cause that has so much surrounding it where it could possibly put me in a position that might hurt my career? I might lose some fans because of my support for gay equality ... Why I want to take the chance on all of this when I could just go pose for Playgirl and get a four-page spread of me in there showing parts of myself that I’ve never shown before? I’m sure that would spread a lot quicker than doing a campaign such as this.

“The answer is, I have four brothers, I have two sisters. I’ve always been a role model for them, someone for them to look up to ... If I think something’s right or if I believe in something, I shoot for it one hundred percent, because at the end of the day, I have to be able to look at myself in the mirror and I have to be able to go home and look at my family and say, ‘I’m doing something that I want to do. I’m doing what I think is right.’”

Watch the video here.