Australia's very own drag superstar Courtney Act has graduated from reality TV contestant to host, fronting ambitious new UK dating show, The Bi Life.
The show, which screens on E!, sees Courtney Act accompany a group of bisexual+ (bisexual, pansexual, fluid etc) singletons to Barcelona, Spain for the match-making trip of a lifetime.
While Act has earned praise for her well-informed, educational approach to LGBTIQ+ activism and advocacy, some members of the community expressed uncertainty about whether or not The Bi Life would achieve positive representation for the perpetually misunderstood community, or lean on popular bisexual tropes and stereotypes.
However, with the first episode airing overseas last week, viewers seem pleasantly surprised by the 10-part reality dating series, calling it "funny", "entertaining" and "educational".
Act, who appeared on Australian Idol in 2003 before shooting to fame on RuPaul's Drag Race and Celebrity Big Brother UK, recently spoke to about the importance of presenting a diverse group of bisexual+ people for viewers to get to know.
”‘The Bi Life’ will show many stories. I think that people will find some of those stereotypes, maybe some people are greedy, maybe some people are using bisexual as a transition, but not all of them are," she said.
"Therefore, there’s all these different experiences and people will get to see same sex and different sex attractions and relationships and experiences."
Act added: “Bisexual people make up the largest percent of the LGBTQ community, but they’re the least represented, and so I think it’s really cool that there’s a group of people in this house who are just real people going on dates. There’s so much visibility for trans people, for gay men and lesbians, but there’s still not a lot for bisexual people.”
The Bi Life premiers in Australian on October 30th on E!.
