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Miss Utah Rachel Slawson is already making history as the first openly LGBT contestant in the history of the Miss USA pageant, but she wants to break another glass ceiling while she’s at it. Slawson would love to be the first bisexual Bachelorette.
“I think that I should be the first bisexual Bachelorette,” Slawson said on E!’s Daily Pop. “That’s one of my dreams because I think the LGBTQ community needs to be represented in modern media.”
“And I think that if we had more examples of love stories that are diverse—especially because of my story, you know, overcoming and living with Bipolar Disorder, that’s something that’s so often shamed and stigmatized—if we had a Bachelorette and a Miss USA that says, ‘Hey I’m bisexual. I’ve been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, and I deserve to have my dreams come true and I deserve to have love…’ I think that would make a huge change.”
Slawson, 25, was crowned Miss Utah in January and will compete in the Miss USA pageant on Monday, Nov. 9.
The Bachelor Franchise Has Only Dipped Its Toes in the LGBT Waters
Slawson’s correct when she says she’d be the first openly bisexual cast member on The Bachelorette, regardless if she was added as the lead or as a contestant. The franchise’s only foray into that territory came when Demi Burnett, a contestant on season 23 of The Bachelor, came out as bisexual during her time on season six of Bachelor in Paradise.
Burnett later got engaged on the Bachelor in Paradise finale to a woman, Kristian Haggerty, but the couple announced their split on Instagram in October 2019.
If Slawson was cast as the lead of The Bachelorette and given a group of both male and female suitors, that’d be completely unmarked territory for the franchise. It wouldn’t be an entirely unique idea, though. MTV aired a bisexual-themed reality dating show called A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila in 2007 and 2008, as well as A Double Shot at Love in 2008.
Demi Burnett Was Almost Named The Bachelorette in 2019
ABC executive Robert Mills revealed in March 2019 that the network met with five women about the prospects of leading season 15 of The Bachelorette. While Hannah Brown was the network’s final choice, Tayshia Adams, Hannah Godwin, Caelynn Miller-Keyes, and Burnett were also discussed as possibilities.
Mills told E! that Burnett was the network’s second favorite option behind Brown.
While Burnett hadn’t yet come out as bisexual at that time, she was an interesting option for ABC because of her uniquely brash and bold personality.
“I don’t think even a villain is even what a villain anymore,” Mills told E! “With Demi, we thought she was going to be a villain. She’s like a Corinne [Olympios] or she’s like a Tierra [LiCausi] or one of these other sort of classic villains, and then you thought, no, she’s not like that. She speaks her mind and she’s very open.
“I think Demi would be a really interesting season.”
If ABC did decide to shake things up in a major way with a bisexual season of The Bachelorette, Burnett stands out as the obvious candidate to step into the spotlight.
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