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"That sort of above and below the line commitment to telling these stories is a huge plus." That included speaking with a now-former GLAAD employee who identifies as bisexual and non-binary and "whose personal experience could relate to the show," says Deerwater. For every shouting match and illicit trip to the boom boom room between non-matches (trademark moments of every AYTO season), there was also a conversation about pronoun usage, monogamy, and the different forms a non-binary gender identity can take-topics the show had, perhaps unsurprisingly, never tackled before.īesides hiring a majority LGBTQ crew, MTV also consulted with GLAAD on best practices to train non-LGBTQ production members. That understanding made all the difference in how the show was produced and edited. "We all came together and realized what we have in common and knew we were doing this for a bigger purpose."ĥ0 Must-Watch Movies That Tell LGBTQ+ Stories "Everybody was accepting, 'Okay, even if you don't know this, let me show you.' They could have been negative about it, and they weren't," says Olson. Not only did those lessons do double duty when later shown to viewers, but they allowed the audience to identify with a cast member like Jonathan, rather than feeling vilified due to a lack of understanding.
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"So, for Jonathan to open up to Basit and to then watch that relationship, it was just like, 'Damn, we're really learning something.'" Wes adds that they had a long conversation with Monroe after the pronoun incident, explaining to him that "nobody expects anybody to learn overnight, but as long as you're trying" that's what is important. and he had never talked to anybody non-binary," explains cast member Jasmine Olson, who hails from Mississippi and acknowledges growing up with a similarly narrow understanding of what it meant to be LGBTQ. In one episode, for example, cast member Jonathan Monroe misgendered his eventual match, Basit Shittu.
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And it matters just as much when all you want to do after a long day is watch people that look like you and love like you participate in silly challenges, have drunken dance parties, and kiss people they probably definitely shouldn't.īefore being cast on AYTO, "the only bisexual representation I ever saw on TV was Tila Tequila, and that was just one person, and it was very gimmicky," says contestant Justin Palm.Ī post shared by Raina Deerwater was an education for the cast as much as the audience. But, the answer is nonetheless a resounding yes, according to Raina Deerwater, entertainment research & analysis manager at GLAAD: "We say over and over again at GLAAD and in the community that 'representation matters.'" It matters when a film like Moonlight wins an Oscar, Deerwater says. It might not be the most pressing question of our time, given the onslaught of anti-trans bills that have passed this year. When, if ever, will an entity as big and powerful as Bachelor Nation begin to resemble our own? After all, "isn't queer people being as messy and carefree as heterosexual people on TV the epitome of equality?" says Kai Wes, a contestant on AYTO season eight. So, where are all the queer reality dating shows?
(And even when a bisexual contestant does make the cut, they're often tokenized or caught on the receiving end of another cast member's biphobia.) It's not as if the premises of these shows are so original that they can only work for straight couples- AYTO proved just the opposite, resulting in an award-winning season of excellent, and entertaining as hell, television. Meanwhile, the options for watching cisgender, heterosexual people lust over one another on national television abound, from the decades-long Bachelor franchise to newer fare like Love Is Blind.
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Nor-with the exception of Logo's Finding Prince Charming (2016)–has another reality dating show featured only LGBTQ folks looking for love (or at the very least, Instagram followers) in its wake. But, despite being the only season to win any industry awards, there hasn't been another season like it since. After premiering during Pride Month 2019, AYTO season eight won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Reality Program in 2020. Sounds intriguing, right? It was, and it was well done.