ABC’s reality TV romance competition The Bachelor has gone through 23 awkward seasons without having ever featured a gay, lesbian or bisexual lover as the catch of the season. But it seems like the series’ spinoff Bachelor in Paradise is finally featuring a queer romantic interest, breaking new ground in the mostly heterosexual series.
In The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, single men and women simultaneously “date” 25 people in some exotic locale while systematically rejecting all but one of them in a series of overwrought “rose ceremonies.” Bachelor in Paradise mixes up this formula by dropping a bunch of horny heteros at a Mexican beach resort and watching them frug and fight until some of them get engaged or just leave in tears — fun!
A recently released trailer for season six of Bachelor in Paradise promises “more tears than ever before” and shows off contestant Demi Burnet, a queer-identified woman who rolls around with another woman in bed and says, “I don’t care who sees this. I know that I love this girl. I’m just so happy that I found her, and I can definitely picture being with her for the rest of my life.”
Related: What is it like being the hunky gay Asian lead on a reality dating show?
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Later, in a teary-eyed confession, Burnet tells another blonde woman, “I just don’t want to lose you.”
Here’s the trailer for season six of Bachelor in Paradise:
We have SO MANY QUESTIONS. Meet us on the beach for #BachelorInParadise in 2 weeks! pic.twitter.com/FB811f1Ckc
— Bachelor in Paradise (@BachParadise) July 23, 2019
It’s not surprising that it took the franchise nearly 23 seasons to show an openly queer contestant considering that it took The Bachelor 18 seasons before presenting a bachelor of color, a Venezuelan man who referred to gay people as “perverts.”
It also makes sense that their first out queer contestant would be a woman as that’s more palatable to mainstream straight audiences than two men sucking face. The Bachelor has actually had three female contestants who identified as bi after leaving the show and Bachelor in Paradise‘s Australian version had a lesbian couple too, so perhaps the show has never been as straight as it seemed.
Of course, if all this isn’t gay enough for you, you can always watch the gay Bachelor parody featuring Jesse Tyler Ferguson as the unlucky “prize.”
Gay Veteran
I’ll stick with MTV’s Are You The One, a show that managed to give us queerness and diversity all in one season… Maybe in another 20+ seasons The Bachelor will figure this out.
AlexanderRogers1519
I’ll stick with MTV’s Are You The One, a s….- Absolutely agree with you But i am here not only to discuss this article but I AM LOOKING for NEW boyfriend. My whatsapp number is ‘ 17732425635’ . Drop me some lines nly if you are single and looking for love and pleasure..
dwes09
Everybody hates a spammer Alexander. Especially an obvious one like you who likely is phishing.
Kangol2
Also, there’s Ex on the Beach, which features an interracial pan couple, one of whom’s cis and the other of whom is trans. Last year it had several diverse, gay male couples. The Bachelor & Bachelorette are way behind the times!
RIGay
Never watched it. Ever. Ever.
dwes09
If people ever tout the superiority of heterosexuality over homosexuality I simply bring up the Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise to shut them up. Personally I love it, clueless self absorbed people thinking situations too far removed from the reality of dating/mating to be believed are going to lead them to true love. Plus, the Bachelorette has dozens of easy on the eyes “dudes” and “bros” running around and posing, often shirtless. It’s amusing (in a perverse way) AND arousing. What’s not to like. Bachelor in paradise is even better, as it shows more flesh and acknowledges it is about little more than superficial sexual attraction among people who don’t understand the difference between that and real compatibility.