In a world franchise first, Australia’s next Bachelorette will be an out person from the LGBTQ community and will have people of multiple genders vying for her roses.
Brooke Blurton, now 26 years old, has been open about being pansexual (or bisexual, she uses both terms) since she was first a contestant on The Bachelor Australia in 2018 and explained to the Bachelor she had had previous relationships with men and women.
As a Noongar-Yamatji woman, she will also be the first indigenous Australian Bachelorette.
While previous Bachelor franchise contestants have come out before (including former Bachelor Colton Underwood, who came out as gay last month), this will be the first time a lead has come into the show as openly queer and it will be the first time since its 2002 premiere that any country’s version of the show will switch up the male lead with female-only suitors or female lead with male-only suitors premise.
Speaking with the Daily Telegraph, Blurton said, “If it makes people feel uncomfortable in any way, I really challenge them to think about why it does.” She continued: “I am not too sure if Australia is ready for it. I hope they are. I certainly am.”
Blurton understands that a mansion filled with people of multiple genders looking for love might find it with each other instead of her… and she’s OK with that. “If it happens, who am I to stop it? I think it’s one of those things… it could be inevitable to happen and that’s totally fine.”
For some queer women, the mixed-gender casting and format of the show is bringing up memories of the 2007-2010 dating show A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. Some on Twitter are happy Blurton will replace Tequila as the biggest name in bisexual dating reality television, given that Tequila said in 2018 that she faked being queer for the show. Tequila, who is a born-again Christian who has expressed white nationalist and pro-Nazi views, said in the 2018 video that she had a boyfriend during both seasons of A Shot at Love and that she saw the contestants as “degenerate” and “disgusting.”
Filming for Blurton’s season of The Bachelorette Australia is slated to start next month and applications for contestants are still open.
