Reality TV has given us some of the most memorable queer personalities on television. From Survivor legends and Bravo Housewives to Netflix dating show favorites, Challenge champions and the people trying to figure out who they can trust on The Traitors, queer people are showing up across just about every corner of reality TV.
This list brings together 40 of our favorites, including lesbians, bisexual and pansexual women, trans men and women, nonbinary stars and queer people who don’t feel the need to put a specific label on their sexuality.
There is one glaring omission: the many, many queer stars of food television. We didn’t forget them. There were enough incredible queer chefs, hosts and competition favorites that we gave them a list of their own. Read our guide to queer stars of food television here.
For everyone else, keep reading.
Gabby Windey
Gabby Windey first won over reality TV fans on The Bachelor before becoming one of the leads of Season 19 of The Bachelorette. In 2023, she came out publicly and introduced fans to her then-girlfriend, comedian Robby Hoffman, a relationship that brought a whole new audience along for Gabby’s post-Bachelor life. She later joined Season 3 of The Traitors, where she was genuinely hilarious, surprisingly good at the game and ultimately walked away as one of the season’s winners. Since leaving Bachelor Nation behind, Gabby has built a career that feels increasingly removed from the franchise where we first met her, while becoming one of the most visible queer women in reality TV.
Parvati Shallow
If you’ve watched Survivor at any point in the last 20 years, you probably know Parvati Shallow. She competed four times, won Survivor: Micronesia and built a reputation as one of the best social and strategic players the game has ever seen. More recently, she brought that same energy to The Traitors and Deal or No Deal Island, introducing herself to plenty of reality fans who somehow missed the Parvati era of Survivor. She publicly came out as queer at the end of 2023 and has since spoken about figuring out her sexuality later in life. She also dated one of our favorite queer comedians, Mae Martin, giving queer reality TV fans a crossover we definitely didn’t have on our bingo cards.
Chrishell Stause
Chrishell Stause has been part of Selling Sunset since the very beginning, which means we’ve watched a lot of her life unfold on Netflix. There have been multimillion-dollar houses, office feuds, friendships, breakups and eventually her relationship with Australian musician G Flip, who is nonbinary. Chrishell and G first went public in 2022 and married in Las Vegas the following year, and their relationship became a major part of Chrishell’s story on the show. After nine seasons, Chrishell announced that she was leaving Selling Sunset, but she’s not leaving reality TV entirely. She’s now working on a queer reality dating series of her own, which feels like a pretty good next chapter.
Kaycee Clark
Kaycee Clark made history when she won Big Brother 20, becoming the first openly lesbian winner of the American series. She was calm, athletic and very good at competitions, so it wasn’t exactly surprising when MTV recruited her for The Challenge. Kaycee went on to become one of the strongest competitors in the franchise and eventually won Spies, Lies & Allies. Her relationship with fellow Challenge cast member Nany González also played out on the show, and the two became one of reality TV’s most visible lesbian couples before announcing their split in 2025. Kaycee has now been a fixture of competition reality TV for years, and she’s still one of the relatively few masculine-presenting lesbians regularly appearing on major reality franchises.
Jasmine Goode
Jasmine Goode has one of those reality TV résumés that gets more interesting the longer you look at it. We first met her on Nick Viall’s season of The Bachelor, followed by a trip to Bachelor in Paradise, but these days she’s part of the Bravo universe as a cast member on The Valley. The show has given us a much bigger look at Jasmine’s actual life, including her relationship with Melissa Carelli and her friendships with the wider Vanderpump Rules crew. Jasmine and Melissa got married in New Jersey in June 2026 after five years together, with plenty of familiar Bravo and Bachelor Nation faces there to celebrate. Going from competing for Nick Viall on The Bachelor to marrying a woman on Bravo is also a reality TV character arc we can get behind.
Becca Tilley
Becca Tilley made it all the way to the final two on Chris Soules’ season of The Bachelor and returned the following year to date Ben Higgins, making her a very recognizable face from the franchise’s mid-2010s era. Years later, Becca surprised Bachelor Nation when she revealed that she had been quietly dating pop star Hayley Kiyoko since 2018. The two finally went public in 2022 when Becca appeared at the end of Hayley’s very gay, very Bachelor-inspired music video for “For the Girls.” After keeping their relationship private for four years, they’ve more than made up for lost time, regularly appearing together on social media and getting engaged in 2025.
Teeny Chirichillo
Teeny Chirichillo became a fan favorite on Survivor 47, making it all the way to the final four before losing the fire-making challenge. During filming, Teeny wasn’t ready to fully define their gender identity and became the first openly nonbinary contestant to compete on Survivor. In 2025, after the season had aired, Teeny came out as a trans man in a deeply personal essay about everything that happened before, during and after the show. He has since had top surgery, uses he/they pronouns and continues to write and talk openly about his experience. And because apparently the Survivor dating pool is alive and well, Teeny is now dating Survivor 48 contestant Stephanie Berger.
Jenna Lyons
Long before Jenna Lyons became a Housewife, she was already a fashion-world celebrity thanks to her years as the creative director and president of J.Crew. Then Bravo convinced her to join the completely rebooted cast of The Real Housewives of New York City, making her the franchise’s first openly gay New York Housewife. Jenna brought something very different to RHONY: incredible clothes, a slightly awkward energy and a level of actual fashion-world credibility that made the rest of the cast understandably obsessed with what she thought. She appeared for two seasons before announcing in 2025 that she wouldn’t return, in part because her partner, photographer Cass Bird, didn’t want their relationship filmed. Jenna and Cass are engaged, and Jenna has spoken openly about realizing she was attracted to women later in life.
Carolyn Wiger
There really isn’t anyone else on reality TV quite like Carolyn Wiger. She arrived on Survivor 44 screaming, crying, laughing, finding idols and regularly being underestimated, only to make it all the way to the final three. Carolyn became such a fan favorite that Sia gave her $100,000 after the season, and Peacock eventually recruited her as one of the original Traitors on Season 3 of The Traitors. She’s also pansexual, a word she has spoken about embracing more openly in conversations about her queerness. Whether she’s playing an idol correctly on Survivor or sitting in a turret trying to convince fellow Traitors to listen to her, Carolyn is almost impossible to ignore when she’s on screen.
Andie Vanacore
Andie Vanacore was one of the original civilian contestants thrown into a Scottish castle with a bunch of reality TV veterans for the first U.S. season of The Traitors. A trans nonbinary contestant who uses they/them pronouns, Andie quietly played one of the strongest social games of the season and made it all the way to the final two alongside fellow Faithful Quentin Jiles. Unfortunately, they also trusted Cirie Fields completely, which anyone who watched that finale knows did not end particularly well for them. Andie has since spoken about the importance of trans and nonbinary representation on the show, as well as the frustration of being repeatedly misgendered by viewers while it aired. They continue to share adorable content of life at home with their wife, Jess and two kids on the account Twobabesonebarn.
Racquel Chevremont
Racquel Chevremont joined The Real Housewives of New York City for Season 15, bringing decades of experience in the art world and a very different kind of New York life to the show. A former model turned art curator and advisor, Racquel has worked with some of the biggest names in contemporary art and has been open about being a Black queer woman throughout her time on Bravo. Viewers also got to know her partner, clinical forensic neuropsychologist Mel Corpus, and watch Racquel navigate everything from co-parenting to introducing Mel to her family. Away from RHONY, the two have become regulars on the New York queer social scene. Racquel also happens to have one of the coolest wardrobes on Bravo, which certainly doesn’t hurt.
Francesca Farago
Francesca Farago has basically made a career out of being extremely good at Netflix reality TV. She became one of the breakout stars of the first season of Too Hot to Handle, returned for Love Is Blind: After the Altar and then caused plenty of chaos on the first season of Perfect Match. Francesca is openly bisexual and dated both men and women on Perfect Match, including fellow cast member Abbey Humphreys. These days, her life looks very different from the dating-show chaos that made her famous: she’s engaged to trans TikTok creator Jesse Sullivan, and the couple welcomed twins in 2024. Between Netflix and a massive social media following, Francesca has remained one of the most recognizable faces from the streamer’s reality TV universe.
Nicole Zanatta
If you’ve watched The Challenge over the last decade, you’ve almost certainly encountered Nicole Zanatta. The Staten Island firefighter and openly lesbian reality star first appeared on The Real World: Skeletons before becoming a regular on The Challenge, where her athleticism, thick accent and ability to get herself into complicated relationships have made her pretty hard to forget. She’s competed on multiple flagship and All Stars seasons, including All Stars 4, where yet another chapter of her extremely messy history with Laurel Stucky played out on screen. Nicole has never exactly been subtle about being into women, and her dating life has been part of her reality TV story almost from the beginning. She’s also one of the more visibly masculine lesbian women to have had a recurring role on a major American reality franchise.
Peppermint
Peppermint was already a reality TV favorite before she ever stepped inside Alan Cumming’s castle. She first became widely known as the runner-up on Season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, making history as the show’s first contestant to enter the competition as an openly trans woman. Years later, she joined Season 2 of The Traitors, where she was immediately accused of being a Traitor after a verbal slip and became the very first contestant banished from the castle. The elimination sparked plenty of conversation among fans, particularly because Peppermint was the only openly trans contestant in the cast and barely got a chance to play. Outside reality TV, she’s also an actress, singer and longtime advocate whose career stretches well beyond the shows where many viewers first discovered her.
Kyra Green
Kyra Green has quietly built one of the more impressive multi-show résumés on this list. She first appeared on the inaugural season of Love Island USA, where she was openly bisexual and coupled up with both men and women during her time in the villa. She later traded dating-show drama for competition reality TV on The Challenge: USA before heading back to Netflix romance on the first season of Perfect Match. Kyra’s time on that show included a relationship with fellow Love Island alum and bisexual reality star Cashel Barnett, as well as connections with women, continuing the kind of fluid dating life she had already shared publicly. She’s also a musician and model, and has stayed active on social media long after her first trip to the Love Island villa.
Ariana Madix
Ariana Madix spent more than a decade on Vanderpump Rules, but somehow became an even bigger reality TV star after leaving SUR behind. She has been openly bisexual for years, memorably declaring her first Pride after coming out publicly as a “bisexual queen” during Vanderpump Rules. Then came Scandoval, the breakup that briefly consumed the entire internet and launched Ariana into an entirely new phase of her career. Since then, she’s competed on Dancing with the Stars, made her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in Chicago and taken over hosting duties on Love Island USA. If you’ve watched the latest era of Love Island, there’s a good chance you now associate Ariana more with incredible reunion looks and walking dramatically into the villa than pouring drinks at SUR.
Zeke Smith
Zeke Smith competed on back-to-back seasons of Survivor, starting with Millennials vs. Gen X before returning for Game Changers. A smart, enthusiastic player who loved the strategy of the game, Zeke was already becoming a memorable Survivor character when another contestant, Jeff Varner, outed him as transgender during Tribal Council without his consent. The moment became one of the most talked-about scenes in the show’s history, but Zeke was adamant that he didn’t want being trans to become the only thing people remembered about him. He has remained connected to the Survivor world over the years and even interviewed fellow trans Survivor alum Teeny Chirichillo about their shared experiences on the show. Zeke is now married to actor Nico Santos, whom he met at the GLAAD Media Awards.
Jess Theron
Jess Theron is one of the newer names on this list, joining the deck crew for Season 12 of Below Deck in 2025. The South African deckhand was openly gay on the show and talked about coming out during her final year of high school after growing up in a religious family. She also arrived on the boat very much open to the possibility of a boatmance, quickly admitting that several of the women on board had caught her attention. Jess brought exactly the kind of flirtation, crew drama and questionable decision-making that makes Below Deck so easy to keep watching. She was also part of an unusually queer season of the franchise, something longtime viewers definitely noticed.
Claire Rehfuss
Claire Rehfuss didn’t win Big Brother 23, but things worked out pretty well for her in the reality TV department anyway. The openly bisexual AI engineer finished eighth, became a fan favorite and started dating fellow houseguest Derek Xiao after the season wrapped. The pair then headed straight back to CBS for The Amazing Race 34, where they traveled around the world and actually won the whole thing. Claire and Derek were together for four years before announcing an amicable split in 2025, but their Amazing Race win remains one of the better post-Big Brother success stories. She also co-founded Survivor 50 Michigan, a massive fan event that raised money for LGBTQ+ organizations while bringing together an almost ridiculous number of former Survivor players.
Lara Du Preez
Lara Du Preez joined Below Deck Mediterranean for Season 8 and quickly became one of the standouts of the deck team. The South African yachtie worked her way up from deckhand to lead deckhand during the season, while also being very open about dating women. Lara talked on the show about coming out to her conservative family and about the complicated relationship she once had with the word lesbian, ultimately preferring to simply describe herself as gay. She also developed a particularly fun friendship with chief stew Tumi Mhlongo and proved herself to be one of the more competent people aboard the Mustique, which on Below Deck is never something you should take for granted. Between her dry sense of humor, work ethic and willingness to talk openly about her sexuality, Lara was an easy person to remember after the charter season ended.
Julia Lemigova
Julia Lemigova joined The Real Housewives of Miami when the series returned in 2021 and became the first openly queer Housewife in Bravo history. Before reality TV, she had already lived a pretty fascinating life: she was the last Miss USSR, competed at Miss Universe, modeled across Europe and eventually moved to the United States. Julia has been married to tennis legend Martina Navratilova since 2014, and their relationship and family life have become a major part of her time on RHOM. More recently, viewers have watched the couple expand their family by adopting two young boys, while Julia has also thrown herself into opera lessons and, naturally, plenty of Housewives drama. She has now been part of Miami for several seasons, making a same-sex marriage and queer family a completely normal part of one of Bravo’s biggest franchises.
Johnnie Garcia
Johnnie Garcia arrived on Season 5 of Love Island USA as a Casa Amor bombshell and quickly found herself at the center of one of the season’s biggest storylines. She initially connected with Leo Dionicio, creating the kind of messy love triangle Love Island producers dream about, but things got much more interesting when she began exploring a connection with Kassy Castillo. Johnnie came out as bisexual during the season, and their relationship became the first same-sex coupling in Love Island USA history. Although neither woman ultimately left the villa in a queer relationship, seeing two women openly explore their attraction on one of America’s biggest straight dating shows felt like a pretty significant shift. Johnnie has continued sharing her life and bisexual identity with her social media audience since leaving the villa.
Billie Lee
Billie Lee joined Vanderpump Rules in Season 6 as a hostess at SUR and became the show’s first openly transgender cast member. Her time on the series wasn’t always easy, and Billie was very open about the transphobia and exclusion she experienced both before and during her years in the Bravo universe. She ultimately left as a regular cast member after Season 7, although anyone who followed the fallout from Scandoval knows that wasn’t the last time Billie popped up in the world of Vanderpump Rules. Since leaving reality TV, she’s continued talking openly about her transition and life as a trans woman while branching into podcasting, writing and stand-up comedy. Even years after her original run at SUR, Billie remains one of the few openly trans people to have held a recurring role on a major Bravo reality series.
Cara Maria Sorbello
Cara Maria Sorbello has been doing The Challenge for so long that it’s difficult to imagine the franchise without her. She debuted on Fresh Meat II in 2010, went from early elimination to two-time champion and eventually became one of the most recognizable women in the show’s history. Cara Maria has spoken openly about being attracted to both men and women, and her relationship with fellow Challenge star Paulie Calafiore became a major part of both the show and their lives outside it. After taking several years away from the franchise, she made a much-hyped return on All Stars 4 and has since stepped right back into the world of eliminations, alliances and decade-old grudges that make The Challenge what it is. Few reality stars get to evolve on television for more than 15 years, but viewers have basically watched Cara Maria grow up on MTV.
Abbey Humphreys
Abbey Humphreys first appeared on Netflix’s Twentysomethings: Austin, a reality series about eight strangers trying to build new lives in Texas, before getting a much bigger audience on Perfect Match. Abbey is openly bisexual, and her arrival on the Netflix dating show led to a relationship with Francesca Farago, giving the first season one of its few same-sex matches. Things between them got messy quickly, particularly once Francesca kissed Kariselle Snow, and Abbey had no problem calling out behavior she wasn’t willing to accept. That directness made her stand out in a cast filled with people who had already spent years learning how to make good reality TV. She’s remained active online since the show and is one of several openly bisexual women Netflix has moved between its growing universe of reality series.
Natalie Negrotti
Natalie Negrotti entered reality TV on Big Brother 18, where her showmance with James Huling became one of the season’s biggest storylines. She later moved over to MTV for The Challenge, competing on Vendettas, Final Reckoning and War of the Worlds and proving herself to be a much tougher competitor than plenty of viewers expected. Natalie came out as pansexual in 2018 after her sexuality became a topic of conversation on The Challenge, something she later said she had hoped to share on her own terms. Since then, she’s spoken openly about dating women and what being pansexual means to her. She’s also built a substantial life outside reality TV, including a career in fitness and a social media following that’s stuck with her long after her last elimination.
Karla Cruz Godoy
Karla Cruz Godoy came into Survivor 43 ready to play and quickly established herself as one of the season’s biggest strategic threats. She found a hidden immunity idol, won individual immunity challenges and made it all the way to the final five before her game finally caught up with her. Karla is openly queer and was also part of a season with multiple LGBTQ+ contestants, something she spoke about proudly while the show was airing. She’s married to her wife, and the two welcomed their first child after her time on Survivor. Karla has stayed connected to the show’s enormous online fan community, where her gameplay, confessionals and willingness to talk a little trash have kept her very much in the conversation.
Nany González
Nany González has spent more than a decade letting MTV viewers follow the highs and lows of her life. She started on The Real World: Las Vegas in 2011 before becoming one of the longest-running women on The Challenge, appearing on season after season and reaching multiple finals along the way. Nany publicly explored her sexuality during her years on the franchise, and her friendship with Kaycee Clark eventually turned into a relationship that played out both on and off the show. The pair got engaged in 2023 before announcing their split in 2025, ending one of the most visible queer relationships in Challenge history. Nany has also been open about stepping away from the show at different points to focus on her family, grief and life outside the reality TV bubble.
Kate Chastain
Kate Chastain spent six seasons running the interior of superyachts on Below Deck, armed with a perfectly organized pantry and some of the driest commentary Bravo has ever put on television. The longtime chief stew became one of the franchise’s defining cast members before eventually trading charter guests for Alan Cumming’s Scottish castle on the first two seasons of The Traitors. Kate publicly dated a woman while she was on Below Deck, but has been equally public about not wanting to put a label on her sexuality, telling Bravo that she didn’t identify as bisexual. Since leaving yachting, she’s remained firmly in the Bravo universe as a commentator, host and reality TV personality. She’s also now a mom, adding yet another chapter to a life viewers have been following for more than a decade.
Chelley Bissainthe
Chelley Bissainthe became one of the breakout personalities of Love Island USA Season 7, entering the villa as an original Islander and making it deep into the season. The New York-based model and creative openly identified as bisexual before and during her time on the show, although her main romantic storyline in the villa was with Ace Greene. Chelley and Ace already knew each other before Love Island, which naturally gave viewers plenty to debate as their relationship developed on screen. She left the villa with a sizable new audience and quickly became one of the season’s most followed contestants. For a franchise that has only recently started making room for openly queer Islanders, having a bisexual woman in the original cast rather than arriving as a twist or bombshell was a welcome change.
Laurel Stucky
Laurel Stucky has been intimidating people on The Challenge since she first appeared on Fresh Meat II in 2010. A former college athlete and veterinarian, Laurel quickly earned a reputation as one of the strongest women the franchise had ever seen, eventually winning Free Agents and returning years later to win All Stars 4. Her relationships with women have also played out on screen, most notably her long, complicated and occasionally exhausting history with fellow competitor Nicole Zanatta. Laurel has generally resisted putting a neat label on her sexuality, instead speaking about falling in love with people rather than genders. After more than a decade of eliminations, rivalries and some spectacularly messy television, she’s still one of the first names longtime Challenge fans think of when talking about the show’s strongest women.
Evvie Jagoda
Evvie Jagoda arrived on Survivor 41 as a Harvard-educated researcher who immediately made it clear they had been thinking about the game for a very long time. They became one of the season’s strongest strategic players, built close relationships across the tribe and made it to the final nine before being voted out. After filming, Evvie came out as nonbinary, genderqueer and transmasculine and began using they/them pronouns publicly. They have also spoken about how different it feels to watch their season back now, knowing they were still figuring out their gender while it was being filmed. Evvie remains part of the larger Survivor community and is one of several recent contestants who have expanded what queer and trans representation on the show can look like.
Aneesa Ferreira
Aneesa Ferreira has been appearing on MTV reality TV for so long that her first season predates Facebook. Viewers met her on The Real World: Chicago in 2002, where she was open about being bisexual, before she became one of the longest-running competitors in Challenge history. Across more than two decades, we’ve watched Aneesa compete through countless eliminations, alliances, injuries and near misses before finally reaching another final on Ride or Dies. She has also spoken throughout her career about navigating reality TV as a queer, biracial Jewish woman at a time when very few people who looked or identified like her were being cast. At this point, Aneesa isn’t just a recurring Challenge contestant; she’s part of the history of the franchise.
Christie Murphy
Christie Murphy was one of the biggest personalities on Big Brother 21, and anyone who watched that season probably remembers the crying, the paranoia and her absolute commitment to believing the universe was sending her signs about the game. Christie entered the house as an openly lesbian contestant and made it all the way to sixth place after spending much of the summer at the center of the season’s dominant alliance. She also had the extremely Big Brother complication of secretly knowing fellow houseguest Tommy Bracco before filming, a connection the rest of the cast didn’t discover until much later. Since the show, Christie has remained active on social media and married her longtime partner Jamie Martin in 2022. The two have since welcomed children together, giving Christie a considerably calmer life than the one we watched on the live feeds.
Tula “Big T” Fazakerley
Tula “Big T” Fazakerley brought a completely different energy to The Challenge when she joined the franchise after first appearing on the British reality series Shipwrecked. The London-based chef wasn’t the most obvious physical threat in a cast full of professional athletes, but her personality, political game and ability to keep coming back made her a fan favorite across multiple seasons. Big T publicly came out as bisexual in 2021, sharing that she had previously struggled to understand and accept her attraction to women. She has since returned for more seasons of The Challenge, including Battle for a New Champion, while also pursuing her work as a private chef. And in a franchise where everyone seems determined to scream at each other in a bunker, Big T’s warmth and sense of humor have always made her stand out.
Dominique Defoe
Dominique Defoe first appeared on Season 4 of Too Hot to Handle, where being a bisexual woman surrounded by extremely attractive people was probably not the easiest way to win a show about avoiding physical intimacy. She returned to Netflix for Season 2 of Perfect Match, where her sexuality became part of a particularly frustrating conversation when fellow contestant Chris Hahn seemed more interested in the possibility of a threesome than actually understanding her bisexuality. What viewers didn’t see was potentially much more interesting: Dominique later revealed that she matched with fellow bisexual contestant Brittan Byrd during filming, but their relationship was cut from the show. The two continued seeing each other after leaving the villa and publicly called Netflix out for editing their queer storyline almost entirely away. Dominique has continued using her platform to talk about bisexuality, representation and the difference between actually dating queer women and treating their sexuality like a fantasy.
Katurah Topps
Katurah Topps came into Survivor 45 as a civil rights attorney and spent much of the season trying to get fellow contestant Bruce Perreault voted off the island. That mission took considerably longer than she would have liked, but Katurah ultimately made it all the way to the final four and became one of the season’s most memorable players. She also shared parts of her difficult childhood during the show, including leaving a religious cult and eventually putting herself through law school. Katurah is openly queer, but her post-Survivor dating life has given fans an especially good reason to keep following her. In 2025, she and fellow Survivor 45 contestant Sabiyah Broderick revealed that they were dating, despite never actually meeting while they were filming the show.
Audrey Middleton
Audrey Middleton made Big Brother history the moment she walked into the house for Season 17 in 2015. She was the first openly transgender contestant on the American version of the series, arriving at a time when trans people were still incredibly rare across mainstream reality television. Audrey certainly didn’t spend her time in the house quietly, playing aggressively from the beginning and eventually becoming one of the season’s biggest sources of strategy, paranoia and chaos before her eviction. Her time on Big Brother was relatively short, but the significance of seeing an openly trans woman compete on one of America’s longest-running reality franchises was much bigger than her final placement. More than a decade later, she remains an important part of Big Brother history.
Sabiyah Broderick
Sabiyah Broderick only lasted four episodes on Survivor 45, but she managed to give us one of the strangest hidden immunity idol stories the show has ever seen. After finding an idol encased in wax, she had to melt it over the tribe’s fire before she could actually use it, only to be voted out with the newly freed idol still in her possession. Her Survivor story got considerably better once filming ended. Sabiyah and fellow Season 45 contestant Katurah Topps never met on the island, but connected after the show and eventually started dating. When they went public in 2025, they became the first Black queer female couple to come out of the Survivor franchise. It’s a pretty good reminder that getting voted out on Day 9 doesn’t necessarily mean Survivor is finished changing your life.
Brittan Byrd
Brittan Byrd entered the Netflix reality universe on Season 4 of Too Hot to Handle, where she made it almost to the end of the retreat before returning for Season 2 of Perfect Match. Brittan is openly bisexual, but you wouldn’t necessarily know how much that mattered to her Perfect Match experience from watching the finished season. She and Dominique Defoe later revealed that they matched with each other during filming and explored a romantic connection that was almost completely removed from the show. The two continued dating after production and spoke publicly about how disappointing it was to watch Netflix erase a queer relationship from a dating series that had actually filmed one. For a show literally called Perfect Match, leaving one of its few same-sex matches on the cutting-room floor was certainly a choice.
