February 9, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\nCelebrity Mastermind\u00a0and The Finish Line have both had drag queen \u2018Tia Kofi\u2019 as a contestant; recent BBC Weakest Link celeb specials featured drag artist \u2018Blu Hydrangea\u2019 and The One Show kept up its commitment to a monthly drag act with \u2018Paige Three\u2019 on in December and \u2018La Voix\u2019 on last month. Traitors Uncloaked\u00a0\u2013 the show where contestants who\u2019ve been kicked off The Traitors\u00a0give their insight \u2013\u00a0also had a drag artist on.<\/p>\n
And, of course, \u2018because of the unique way the BBC is funded\u2019, the BBC News site also features every crumb of drag news from \u2018Wiltshire locals dress in drag for calendar\u2019 to \u2018Drag queens impacted by cost of living crisis.\u2019 The site ran around 20 separate online stories about the death of drag queen, \u2018The Vivienne\u2019.<\/p>\n
Where does this almost religious adherence to all things drag come from?<\/p>\n
Where does this almost religious adherence to all things drag come from? Some of it is partly because the Waitrose Lib Dems at the Beeb, who hold the reins when it comes to commissioning, think drag queens are cool, risqu\u00e9 or naughty \u2013 that somewhere in the Shires, a Reform voter will go red in the face at the sight of a man in a dress. But of course, anyone knows that once drag queens are regularly on The One Show\u00a0they are about as edgy as a trip to Homebase.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a straight man in media, I used to find it baffling that the most visible on-screen gay type in TV media was the catty, sex-obsessed diva, when few of the gay men I knew in London behaved in this way. That is, until I worked in TV myself, and came to understand how the BBC\u2019s endless quest for diversity quotas shaped its output.<\/p>\n
You see, while showing you have met on-air diversity requirements for \u2018race\u2019 is easy enough, it\u2019s much harder to convey someone\u2019s sexuality on screen in most contexts. Clive Myrie can\u2019t really ask a contestant on Mastermind out of the blue: \u2018So, what do you do with your boyfriend at weekends?\u2019<\/p>\n
Which is where drag queens come in. A drag queen is the most visible manifestation of LGBTQ you can get.\u00a0Being instantly noticeable is the whole drag mojo. So putting one on TV \u2013 or in a BBC news story \u2013\u00a0is an immediate sequinned nod to the fact that you are meeting your diversity quotas and telling \u2018vital LGBTQ stories.\u2019\u00a0Hence why TV has become so obsessed with drag, despite it becoming tedious for audiences. Two drag queens in Eastenders, how exciting, you never hear people actually say.<\/p>\n
When working at the BBC on investigative programmes, we also had to adhere to diversity with on-air case studies. As someone from a state school background in Birmingham, I absolutely believe publicly-funded TV networks should have voices and stories from different classes and experiences. But showcasing a diversity of views is tricky \u2013 especially finding characters that immediately \u2018tick a box\u2019 in the first three minutes they are on screen.<\/p>\n
For instance, when creating programmes on the housing crisis, we once interviewed a live-alone gay man who had a compelling newsworthy story. But in order to hit a self-defeating diversity target set by bosses who never make programmes, we then had the issue of how to make him immediately \u2018look gay\u2019 on-air.<\/p>\n
Cue pantomime among the production team. Can we interview you with your boyfriend? Can we interview you walking around Soho (while we play \u2018Smalltown Boy\u2019 in the background)? Our well-meaning bid for inclusivity had become preposterous and actually offensive.<\/p>\n
This is where diversity eats itself. It ignores the realities of being for the sake of a bankable trope. Where are the hairy gay men that drink real ale and wear corduroy? They don\u2019t exist for TV commissioners. And as a result there are surely confused teenage boys out there who think they might be gay, but presume they can\u2019t possibly be, because they don\u2019t like wearing heels and \u2018voguing.\u2019 <\/p>\n
The idea of gay men as sex-obsessed, bawdy divas has now become as cliched and predictable as a South Asian family in a soap opera owning a corner shop; driving a taxi; wanting their kids to be doctors and having a storyline about an arranged marriage. This immovable need for visibility means you are no longer describing real human stories but meeting a quota influenced by bodies like Stonewall. It\u2019s insulting to everyone involved. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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