Judge Shirley backs same-sex couples dancing on Strictly
STRICTLY head judge Shirley Ballas yesterday hinted that a same-sex couple could be part of this year’s line-up for the first time in the dance show’s history.
Though the idea has been raised before, the BBC has always stuck with the traditional manwoman pairings.
But speaking on Good Morning Britain, Shirley said she “couldn’t think of anything more exciting”.
She added: “They’re just about to have the final of the Italian version of Strictly. A same-sex couple, two men, made the final.” Asked whether she would like to see same-sex couples competing, Shirley, 57, replied: “I think it’s spectacular. I think things are changing. I’m for it.”
Tango
Her comments echoed those of fellow judge Craig RevelHorwood, 53, who saw “no reason” why two men or two women dancing “couldn’t happen”.
He said: “It’s just the Beeb have to decided whether they want to do that one year, and I think it’ll probably happen next year. The tango was originally danced between two men anyway.”
GMB’s viewers used Twitter to complain about the proposed move. One said: “Why are people moaning there should be ‘same sex’ couples on Strictly, they are not ‘couples’, they are dances between a man and woman. Sexuality doesn’t come into it.” Another added: “I don’t want to see same-sex dancing on Strictly. It’s just giving in to the PC brigade and the minority.”
Contestants have also criticised the suggestion. Gay comedian Susan Calman, 43, was infuriated to be asked when she competed last year why she didn’t partner with a woman.
She said: “It is my decision to dance with a man. I want to dance with a man, and I think sometimes there’s nothing more powerful than an openly gay woman on the biggest show on television, whose wife is in the front row, doing what she wants to do.
“I have protested, I have picketed, I have fought, I have been spat on, I have been punched for the gay community.
“This isn’t about my sexuality, this is a woman wanting to learn how to dance.”
Gay male contestants Rob ‘Judge’ Rinder, 39, and the Rev Richard Coles, 56, were not asked if they should dance with a man.
But Coles said that he would be more than happy to dance with a male partner. He also said at the time: “We’ve had a discussion about it actually, and I don’t know, I mean, it’s in no sense that anyone resists the idea in principle, it’s just a question of doing it.” He added: “I think it’s a good year to do it actually, with the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Decriminalisation Act.”
FOR pity’s sake, why on earth should we have same-sex couples on Strictly Come Dancing? It has nothing whatsoever to do with gay rights. As Rob “Judge” Rinder, no less, says elsewhere in this paper: “I’m sorry but some things ain’t politics. And Strictly is one of them.”
Two men dancing together really is a point that does not have to be made on this show.