Sharon Gaffka: It’s time Love Island features LGBTQ+ contestants
Pride month, which means it’s a celebration of the LGBTQ community’s love, acceptance, diversity and pride. It’s also the month in which season eight of Love Island begins.But wouldn’t it be even better if we combined the two things and the show prominently featured LGBTQ+ contestants?
As someone who’s previously opened up on the show about my bisexuality, I’d welcome this wholeheartedly. There is an ongoing conversation surrounding the lack of LGBTQ+ representation on Love Island and shows of a similar nature.The queer community has been fighting for representation on TV for decades.
Yes, the industry has been taking strides in the right direction, but this doesn’t mean that the queer community is getting fair opportunities.The definition of LGBTQ+ is often oversimplified to ‘just being gay’, but that’s not the part.
The ‘B’ for ‘bisexual’ isn’t silent, and it should not be treated as such.The main argument I have seen against having LGBTQ+ representation on Love Island is that the queer community poses a ‘logistical difficulty’.However, in 2016, Love Island UK saw it’s first same-sex couple in Katie Salmon and Sophie Gradon (who sadly died in 2018).Then in 2019, Love Island Australia made history with it’s first same-sex couple in Phoebe Thompson and Cassie Lansdell.Apart from the potential need to send more male islanders’ home than originally anticipated, it didn’t seem logistically difficult then, so why would it be logistically difficult now?From personal experience and memory, during the casting process of season seven, we were advised that we were not guaranteed to be on the show until the moment we physically walked into the villa.
