Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

Why has the BBC’s gay dating show got a trans contestant?

The contestants from I Kissed A Boy series two (Credit: BBC)

‘The UK’s first ever gay dating show is louder, prouder, and more irresistible than ever,’ says the BBC about I Kissed A Boy. But things on the BBC Three reality dating show aren’t what they seem. Amongst the gaggle of young gay men this time around is Lars: a 23-year-old hotel receptionist from Wolverhampton, who is, in fact, a woman. Yes, what was basically Love Island without women in its first series is now, in series two, like Love Island.

Can’t the gays just be left alone to have a dating show of their own?

‘I‘ve been through 16 years of my life as a girl. It’s aged me, but in a good way,’ says Lars, who says they/them ‘felt like a gay guy trapped in a woman’s body.’ What on earth that means, and how she could possibly know, is anybody’s guess.

Can’t the gays just be left alone to have a dating show of their own? Unfortunately, it seems that for our TV class, I Kissed A Boy isn’t progressive enough, so it needed a woman in it.

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