‘Shows like I Kissed A Boy would have made me accept being gay earlier’

A Kent reality TV star has described the first’s gay dating show in the UK as a huge step forward for the LGBT+ community. Following the release of the first episodes of I Kissed A Boy, Rise and Fall contestant, Connor Fisher, said he was “shocked” it took so long for a show like this to come around.

Aired on BBC Three last week and hosted by Australian singer Dannii Minogue, I Kissed A Boy follows a group of single guys who are matched up and meet for the first time with a kiss. The series is set to be packed with drama, cliffhangers and untold stories about a variety of topics from coming out in a strict religious family to the pressures of body image and more.

Connor expressed his desire for having more LGBT+ representation on TV shows to support people struggling to accept their sexuality. He told KentLive: “I came out years ago now and obviously when I was 20 years old, there was nothing around to help with being gay, now we’ve got Heartstopper, I Kissed A Boy.

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“I was gay for a very long time. It took me years to come out. With shows like I Kissed A Boy, it definitely would have made me accept it may be earlier than what I did. For years I was trying to push it away and think it was a phase, because I didn’t think it was normal.

“Something like I Kissed A Boy would definitely have helped with something like that. It would have made me feel more confident about who I was.”

Connor said there is a real lack of dating shows for gay men in mainstream media, adding: “You’ve got all of these same sex dating shows, but there hasn’t actually been a male gay dating show which I think is important, especially in this day and age. It’s important to show you can love whoever you wish to love without having to feel like you can’t be yourself.”

He stressed the importance of having a variety of contestants from different backgrounds who can help queer people relate to them. “The boys were brilliant. They were all very diverse. It wasn’t just skinny, glamorous ones. You had a mixture of all different types of boys,” he said.

“You can relate to all of them, Bobski stood out for me, for being the nice, and funny one and sometimes that’s how I like to come across, as being the loud funny one. In a sense I related to that and then Ollie spoke about the stigma of dating apps.

“You’ve always got to be a certain way to fit in. And I’ve experienced that in the past with certain people I’ve met along the way, you’re too skinny, you’re too fat, in the gay community, there’s always someone putting you down. I’m proud to be part of the community, but at times it can have its downfall.”

‘Blessed to be part of a diverse community in Dover’

The 27-year-old said he grew up in a diverse community in Dover. “We have people from all different ethnicities and sexual orientations as part of our community and I do believe that we are quite good,” he said.

“I haven’t really suffered from homophobia in my hometown. I’ve experienced it online or in other towns, but luckily, where I’m from, I don’t really see homophobia. I feel quite blessed to be part of this community.”

When asked what he would like to see more in mainstream media to better represent his community, he said: “Now we’ve done the same sex males, we could do the same sex females or more dating shows being a bit more diverse, as opposed to the, you know, the norm of male and female as people like to call it, why not a widespread dating show where they’re interested in more than one, one category.”

The first two episodes of I Kissed A Boy are available on iPlayer, with new episodes every Sunday.

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