Big Brother UK Makes Evander Holyfield Stop Talking About 'Fixing' Gay People - Mediaite

Fans of the American version of Big Brother are no strangers to controversy, but in the current iteration of the UK show it was based on, things are playing out quite differently. On Sunday night’s broadcast of Celebrity Big Brother UK, boxer Evander Holyfield expressed his views on homosexuality to former Apprentice UK star Luisa Zissman, views which included comparing homosexuality to a physical handicap that can be fixed. He was then warned, on the air, by the show’s producers, about his “unacceptable language.”

Lounging in bed, Zissman asked Holyfield if there are any gay boxers, and Holyfield replied that there probably were, but none openly. “I think it’s good to be open like that,” Zissman said. “It’s normal.”

This led Holyfield to opine that homosexuality is “not normal,” that it makes no difference if you’re born that way. “If you are born, and your leg is turned this way, you go to the doctor and get it turned right back,” he said.

Zissman tried to end the conversation, but Holyfield restated his analogy to physical disabilities, and said of homosexuality that “Yes, it is a choice.”

Over the summer, Big Brother fans were “treated” to a barrage of racist, homophobic, and just generally sickening remarks on the show’s live feed, and while the show’s handling of the comments was superficial, at best, there were no attempts made to silence them, since that is sort of the point of the show: to observe people in a contrived situation.

On the UK version of the show, though, contestants are appraised of “rules regarding unacceptable language and behavior,” so Holyfield was taken aside and warned by a producer in the show’s confessional room. “You expressed the view that being gay was not normal and could be fixed. Whilst Big Brother realizes these are the views you hold, they are not the views held by many people in society, and expressing these views will be seen as offensive to many people.”

Holyfield explained that he’d forgotten about the rule (although Luisa did try to remind him), and was just telling her his opinion.

“Big Brother does not tolerate the use of offensive language, and must therefore warn you to consider, very carefully, the effect expressing such views may have, and the harm and offense you may cause by repeating these views inside the house,” the omniscient voice replied.

“Okay, then,” Holyfield responded.

Whatever you think of Holyfield’s views, or whether such a warning would ever have been issued on an American show (it obviously would not), most of the producer’s explanation ceases to make any sense when viewed in the context of this next clip. It’s a sort of verbal essay on “finger-banging” by actress Jasmine Waltz that included her asking rapper/musician Dappy “Have you ever tried a finger in your asshole?” and insisting, graphically, that he would love it, and remarking, of two gay contestants, “They are clearly really upset about their anals.”:

The best part of that clip is, of course, the punctuation of that conversation with a genteel “Would you like to retire?”

Now, the relative merits of finger-banging aside, that conversation certainly qualifies as potentially “offensive to many people,” and as “not the views held by many people in society.”

It is true, though, that there’s arguably a potential harm in Holyfield’s comments, in that so-called gay reparative therapy, which is banned in some states (but not the UK), is considered harmful by the psychiatric community. However, that message is never delivered by anyone on the show. Had the conversation been allowed to play out, or failing that, had the producers explained this on-camera to Holyfield and their viewers, they all might have learned something. Surely, that’s at least as important as a demonstration of finger-banging.

(h/t TRS)