The Love Island Boss Thinks Having Queer Contestants Is ‘Logistically Difficult’, We Think It Would Save The Show

This week, ITV commissioner Amanda Stavri finally addressed whether or not Love Island will ever host queer contestants on the reality dating show. Speaking to the Radio Times, she explained that while producers are making an effort to be more inclusive, adding gay Islanders into the show would present ‘logistical difficultly’ to the shows format.

‘There’s been quite a few rumours circulating about featuring gay Islanders, so it’s worth touching on that really,’ Stavri said. ‘The line-up will be announced within time and it goes without saying that we want to encourage greater inclusivity and diversity. In terms of gay Islanders, I think the main challenge is regarding the format of Love Island. There’s a sort of logistical difficulty, because although Islanders don’t have to be 100% straight, the format must sort of give [the] Islanders an equal choice when coupling up.’

Stavri’s clarification comes after The Sun reported that producers were looking for ‘contestants with more fluid sexuality’, instead of the usual brief that islanders must merely be ‘over 18 and looking for love.’

Of course, some viewers have taken issue with Stavri’s reluctance to take on the logistical challenge of having queer islanders. In fact, one journalist for Huffington Post went as far as to explain exactly how Love Island could host queer folks in a Twitter thread yesterday afternoon.

‘Change absolutely nothing about the format, but allow contestants to couple up with people of any gender, including in platonic, non-romantic pairings (e.g. two straight guys, a straight girl and a gay guy, a non-binary lovely and a lesbian lass),’ Daniel Welsh tweeted. ‘Keep everything else the same, i.e. couples have to share a bed, take part in tasks as pairs, all that good shit, maybe couples name themselves A and B early on so that As choose re-couplings first then Bs do.’

Of course, there’d still be logistical problems for producers to work out. How many people and who exactly to bring into the villa if re-couplings ever left odd contestants out. But ultimately, isn’t that what producers are already doing?

There are always random singletons left with no one after re-couplings, there’s always multiple people brought in when a public vote off sees more than one person sent home. In fact, to imply that Love Island is logistically simple now does a disservice to producers that clearly work hard to select contestants based on who will bring in the most drama.

Yes, producers might have to spend a bit more time thinking about who to bring in and when, but hey, isn’t that why their being paid the big bucks to work on ITV’s most popular TV show? Wouldn’t they just be, you know… doing their job?

And to be honest, they’d be doing it better – because they’d be giving viewers a much more interesting show to watch. The past few seasons we have seen the same tired narratives come up again and again. There’s always a couple that you know will win from the start, there’s always a love-triangle, a Casa Amor betrayal, a bombshell that switches everything up half-way through the season.

There are even always the same takes. Year after year, we read and debate about male gaslighting, toxic lad banter, the lack of sex positivity. I know, because I’ve written most of them time and time again.

With queer representation on Love Island then, we might at least get something else to talk about. There would be new dynamics to explore, new debates to have and most importantly, queer people given opportunities to talk and write about love they can finally relate to on-screen, on the UK’s biggest show of the summer no less.

Yes, there may be some uncomfortable moments or reactions online – but they’re happening offline already. At least with queer representation on-screen, not only could those moments become teachable, but they would highlight the prevalence of homophobia that’s readily experienced by the LGBTQ+ community - and normalise seeing queer love every night of the week in a way that may well be important to improve general attitudes (for straight people, but also that kid watching at home that’s uncomfortable with their own sexual identity).

Ultimately, it may prove logistically tricky for Love Island producers, but it’s a logistical problem worth solving if the show wants to grow, improve viewers watching experience and create meaningful discourse about queer peoples experiences of love and life.

Read More:

Is This Love Island 2021's First Contestant?

What Have We Learned From Love Island So Far? That Diversity Cannot Stop Prejudice

How Does A Person Actually Get Selected To Appear On Love Island?