Two former Great British Bake Off contestants have spoken out on what they think the show should be doing moving forward.
Michael Chakraverty and David Atherton, both of whom competed on the 2019 series, believe the Channel 4 series could be doing more for LGBTQ+ representation. David, who won his series, said he felt like his year was a “turning point” for LGBTQ+ contestants as they let bakers wear pro-LGBTQ+ t-shirts and broadcasted a kiss shared between David and his fiance Nik.
Despite this, David also believes the show, which has had openly queer hosts since the beginning with Sue Perkins, Sandi Toksvig and Matt Lucas, has favoured gay men as opposed to representing all the letters in the LGBTQ+ acronym. In an interview with PinkNews, he said Bake Off has “embraced gay men very comfortably and highlighted them a lot”, but the “rest of the queer community has been slightly sidelined.” While David did acknowledge it ultimately comes down to whoever applies, he said the show “could do more”.
