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Big Brother UK Embraces Gay Men
by Matthew Weiss, August 3, 2005
Anthony and Craig
Derek Kemal
If television is an indication of social mores, the British are much more open-minded then Americans.

Take their hit series, Big Brother, which is currently airing its sixth season. Incredibly popular in the UK (averaging between 3 and 4 million viewers), and fodder for daily gossip, the show seems to capitalize on something the American version ignores: homosexuality. In the past, not only has Brian Dowling, a gay flight attendant, won the show, but so has a transgender person, Nadia Almada.

This season there have been a record three gay men on the show: Kemal, a 19-year-old Turkish belly dancer; Craig, a 20-year-old hairdresser, and Derek, a black British 40-year-old politician. There is also another man, Anthony (a 70s-style dancer), whose sexual orientation viewers and contestants are constantly debating; his friendship with Craig has led to an entire storyline devoted to whether they are a couple.

The sixth season kicked off at the end of May, when thirteen contestants entered the house, each one determined to be the last one standing when the show ends on August 13, in order to collect the cash prize.

But they were immediately met with secrets all around. Unbeknownst to the others, Kemal was the show's double agent: he could hear and see what others say in the diary room about him. Three new contestants unexpectedly entered the house after the show had started--though only one, Orlaith, was picked to stay.

Orlaith was up against Kemal to go last week, and unfortunately, Kemal got the boot, becoming the ninth person to leave the show. When asked about his sexuality by reporters upon leaving the house, Kemal said: "I don't even know. Bisexual, gay, this, that. Honestly darling, I don't know. I'm looking for a man."

But the gay male contestants aren't the only ones on this show to steal the spotlight.

Makosi, a 24 year old bisexual Zimbabwe nurse, suggested that she and Anthony had sex, and now she thinks she might be pregnant! The drama continues to unfold as she waits for her period. Contestant Mary, the first to exit the house, told everyone she was abducted by aliens, and overweight contestant Kinga flashed her boobs to the camera the second she entered the house. This type of behavior barely compares to anything in the American version.

A relationship has developed between Saskia and Maxwell. Contestants Makosi, Sam, and Craig have all fought for Anthony’s attention. A few contestants have been reprimanded by Big Brother UK (where the producers have a much bigger presence as an entity in the house) for bad behavior. The contests on the show so far have included becoming ballerinas, lying to one another, masked balls, secret missions, human dog school, pirates, hidden gardens, and the typical fights.

In the UK version, it is the television audience who votes to evict a house member, not the guests themselves, and a new episode airs on Channel 4 every week day (vs. only three times a week in the U.S.). 68 days into the game, there are only six people left in the house, four of them men, including Craig and Derek. Which means there's a decent chance that a gay man will win it all--although this week, Derek and straight contestant Eugene have been nominated for potential eviction, so Derek will have to survive that first.

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