i think the main challenge is regarding the format of love island there's a sort of logistical difficulty because although love islanders don't have to be NUMBER_TOKEN straight the format must sort of give the islanders an equal choice when coupling up we're always very mindful of diversity and inclusion and hopefully you'll see that when we announce the lineup so that's what she said and some people uh particularly queer people weren't very impressed and after the show wrapped up in late august itv managing director kevin ligo doubled down on this stance with this statement at the edinburgh tv festival love island is a particular thing it's about boys and girls coupling up so if you want to do it as a gay version or you want to widen it it is discussed and we haven't yet found a way that would make it suitable for that show and it was the second statement that sparked the most recent discussion surrounding this and let me make it clear there wasn't tons of outrage and people weren't calling to cancel love island this isn't a big deal i think most people have more important things on their mind than this but i just find it interesting that queer people want to be represented by a show like love island it did baffle me at first but i did find an article that made some compelling arguments the mixing of queer and straight people as part of normal life keeping these communities separate as if adding a drop of queerness into a bowl of straight stock would fundamentally damage the purity of the soup feels like new age segregation and that's a good point with younger millennials and gen z fewer young people are identifying as straight than ever a fair few people don't even label themselves anymore so if you're at a party or in the club it's not as much the case now that you'd go hmm so there's NUMBER_TOKEN girls and only eight guys well that's it ladies let's go home there's not enough to go round no likelihood is is that at least a few people there will be by pan so the gender ratio is a moot point the point i'm making is that dating culture is changing that being said i acknowledge that i personally live in a bit of a progressive queer bubble most of my friends are lgbt and i don't know if the rest of love island viewers would relate to that some sure do but there's a fair few that don't and the appeal of love island is how simple and straightforward it is the only goal is to couple up there's no pie eating contest you don't have to abstain from fornication and each week viewers wait to see who gets picked and speculate about who's going to pick who because there's eight boys and only seven girls adding queer people into the mix would involve some more planning there's a sort of logistical difficulty because although love islanders don't have to be NUMBER_TOKEN straight the format must sort of give the islanders an equal choice when coupling up that being said the reason itv statement shees some people off is because people smelt PROFANITY_TOKEN it goes without saying that we want to encourage greater inclusivity and diversity does it though i mean for years people have been bringing up the lack of body diversity and the response has been we want people to be attracted to each other i
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