Bobby and Matty at the end of their 33-hour kiss

Two gay college students in New Jersey broke the world record for kissing over the weekend – making it almost 33 hours without sitting, eating or going to the bathroom. I don’t think I could do this for 33 minutes, let alone hours. You can check out their Facebook page here.

And, here’s the story I wrote for Tonic:

Leave it to New Jersey college students to do social good by simply locking lips.

Kissing has never felt so good.

This past weekend, Matty Daley, 21, and Bobby Canciello, 19, both students at The College of New Jersey, earned the respect of their campus and the Guinness Book of World Records as they possibly set a new world record of continuously kissing for nearly 33 hours. That’s one serious makeout session! The previous record was set by Nicola Matovik and Kristina Reinhart, a German couple.

While the same-sex kiss might have raised some eyebrows, the support the pair received was enormous. Daley told Tonic that they “didn’t want to be just two kids trying to get attention,” so they created the Our Lips Are Sealed campaign to raise awareness for gay rights and to support The Trevor Project, a national organization focused on crisis and suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth.

“I recently finished my six-year coming out process, and wanted to help other youth facing the same issues I did.” Daley explained. “We thought The Trevor Project would be a great recipient of support.”

The College of New Jersey offered campus police to control crowds and provide security. About 300 people witnessed the end of the kiss on Sunday evening. Daley and Canciello stood for the entire 33 hours in a tent located in public on the college campus.

As for the world record for longest continuous kiss, Guinness requires that those who attempt the record stand the entire time, not wear diapers nor sanitary napkins, not eat and, of course, lips must touch the entire time.

“To prepare, we conducted diet and nutrition research. Guinness allows that liquid only be consumed through a straw so we drank Naked Juice over the summer and weened ourselves off solid food for longer periods of time,” Daley said.

The two also spent hours in practice, standing for long periods of time. They even created hand signals to communicate without talking during the entire 33 hours.

“We would knock on each other’s backs to indicate that one of us would need to move around. We would also tap once to rock side to side and twice to stretch arms and legs,” Daley added.

The feat attracted a large Internet viewing audience and more than 500 viewers watched Daley and Canciello live on UStream, and close to 6,500 have visited their channel at the site.

For others wanting to smack lips and break their record, Daley advised, “It’s not a simple task. It took three to four months of preparation, and we still could have done more [to prepare].”

Daley sums up the major driver for his and Canciello’s kiss: “I wanted to show people that two gay men can do anything anyone else can do and show affection and emotion at the same time. I will do all I can to keep fighting for equal rights.”

While Guinness still has to certify the record, the students are about to launch T-shirts to commemorate their accomplishment with proceeds going to The Trevor Project. If Guinness OKs it, they will also be the first same-sex pairing to hold the honors and will appear in the 2012 edition of the book.

If you would like to support The Trevor Project, you can do so at the organization’s site. You can also learn more about the world’s longest kiss at Daley and Canciello’s Facebook page and website.

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