Katie: My Love Island backlash
Model criticised over her bisexual fling with Sophie, by LGBT groups
KATIE Salmon yesterday told of the backlash she faced for being Love Island’s first openly bisexual contestant.
And the 22-year-old revealed the biggest criticism over her fling with tragic Sophie Gradon in the villa came from those in the LGBT community. Katie said many accused of her of publicity seeking. She added: “In the villa I was so scared because I didn’t know what the outside world was thinking, what my family was thinking, what my friends were thinking.
“I was really upset to be honest that they’d not supported me from my own community, who had probably felt those feelings, those nervous feelings of coming out.”
Sophie died this year aged 32. Speaking on the Victoria Derbyshire show, model Katie, from Liverpool, also told how her sexuality is undermined by men.
She said: “They see it as a sexual thing, as entertainment for them.” They’ll be like, ‘Oh, you like women as well, you like threesomes?”
Stonewall charity said bisexuals have a “very real problem” with the LGBT community.
Its chief Ruth Hunt added: “There is an anxiety that bi people don’t really belong and they’re not proper. It’s a deeply offensive.”
Victoria Derbyshire is on weekdays, 9-11am, BBC Two and BBC News Channel.