Openly bisexual Love Island USA star Leslie Golden is throwing shade at UK producers who claimed that casting LGBTQIA+ islanders brings "logistical difficulties" to the show. The British and American versions of Love Island have a bit of history with openly LGBTQIA+ cast members in the franchise. In 2016, Love Island UK season 2 star Sophie Gradon came out as bisexual on the show and made history after choosing to re-couple with a girl, Katie Salmon, for a week.
Over the years, Love Island producers have tried time and time again to explain why they don't cast LGBTQIA+ islanders on the show. Nonetheless, recent seasons in the series have featured contestants coming out as LGBTQIA+ anyway. Namely, Love Island UK season 7 star Sharon Gaffka revealed in the villa that she happens to be bisexual. The show embraced Sharon's coming out and didn't edit out her statements from the episodes, but there was still a sense that Sharon might've been cut in the casting process if this had come up before. On this side of the pond, Casa Amor star Leslie revealed on Love Island USA season 3 that she happens to be bisexual.
Now, Leslie is throwing shade at the Love Island producers who continuously come up with reasons why they can't cast LGBTQIA+ islanders on the show. Specifically, Leslie took to Instagram Stories to react to a The Sun article from June 2021. In the story, ITV's commissioner Amanda Stavri claimed that LGBTQIA+ contestants would present a "sort of logistical difficulty" if they were to be cast in the series. As seen in the screenshot below, Leslie recently reacted to that story by calling herself "logically difficult and proud." It should be noted that this statement came from producers of the original British Love Island series, not from producers behind Love Island USA on CBS.
Leslie is only the latest Love Island alumni to call for more diversity on the show when it comes to sexual orientations and gender identities. American producers haven't made as many public remarks about not casting LGBTQIA+ contestants on Love Island USA, but it still feels like there's a stigma when it comes to casting individuals that could potentially be queer on the show. More often than not, LGBTQIA+ islanders only disclose their sexual orientation after already being in the villa. Overall, this also encourages LGBTQIA+ contestants to not disclose their sexual orientations even if they do get cast on the show. For instance, fans blasted producers last year for cutting Noah Purvis from Love Island USA season 2 after finding out that he had worked as an actor in gay adult films. It was never even made clear whether or not Noah identified as queer, but his previous work experiences appeared to be enough to get him kicked off the show.
It's been a long time for popular dating shows like The Bachelor and Love Island USA to embrace more diverse casts. The excuses have changed over the years, but the overall sentiment still seems to be there. Hopefully, these shows will make room for more representation on reality TV.
Sources: Leslie Golden/Instagram, The Sun