--- title: Brokeback Bachelor: The Bachelorette's Gay Panic on ABC description: Two men are advertised on the show as being in love. Why is ABC making that a joke? canonical: https://time.com/3903270/bachelorette-gay-bachelor-brokeback-abc/ author: Daniel D'Addario article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-01T17:40:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:47:16.993Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Brokeback Bachelor' Stunt Proves ABC Is Behind the Times og:description: 2 men are advertised as being in love. Why is ABC making that a joke? og:url: https://time.com/3903270/bachelorette-gay-bachelor-brokeback-abc/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5a46dfb3879d72b/69885268524fc0a34bdf2e1c/138881_6898.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: CLINT, KAITLYN BRISTOWE bachelorette og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Brokeback Bachelor' Stunt Proves ABC Is Behind the Times twitter:description: 2 men are advertised as being in love. Why is ABC making that a joke? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5a46dfb3879d72b/69885268524fc0a34bdf2e1c/138881_6898.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The 'Brokeback Bachelor' Stunt Proves That ABC Is Behind the Times > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with Ally. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Jun 1, 2015 5:40 PM UTC  THE BACHELORETTE - "Episode 1101B" - The action picks up with Britt and Kaitlyn anxiously awaiting the results of the men's vote. Chris Harrison prepared to give good news to one Bachelorette and, sadly, bad news to the other woman. Kaitlyn was left speechless with the exciting announcement that she is, indeed, the Bachelorette, on the conclusion of "The Bachelorette" two-night premiere event, TUESDAY, MAY 19 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Rick Rowell) CLINT, KAITLYN BRISTOWE THE BACHELORETTE - "Episode 1101B" - The action picks up with Britt and Kaitlyn anxiously awaiting the results of the men's vote. Chris Harrison prepared to give good news to one Bachelorette and, sadly, bad news to the other woman. Kaitlyn was left speechless with the exciting announcement that she is, indeed, the Bachelorette, on the conclusion of "The Bachelorette" two-night premiere event, TUESDAY, MAY 19 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Rick Rowell) CLINT, KAITLYN BRISTOWERick Rowell—ABC  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Jun 1, 2015 5:40 PM UTC ABC News got a great deal of credit this spring for [the sensitive, nuanced interview Diane Sawyer conducted with Bruce Jenner](http://time.com/3835205/bruce-jenner-diane-sawyer-transgender/), now Caitlyn Jenner, in which the Olympian came out as transgender. But the promotion around an upcoming episode of _The Bachelorette_ suggests that the network’s entertainment division didn’t get the same sensitivity training. Tonight’s episode, in which two male suitors of series star Kaitlyn Bristowe are purported by ABC to have found love with one another, is being marketed by the network as “Brokeback Bachelor.” In a promo for the episode, one of the two men makes a series of anodyne statements (“I never thought I would meet someone like that”; “falling in love with a man never crossed my mind”), edited together to build the sense that there’s a gay love affair blossoming among the men who are meant to be [seeking Bristowe’s hand in marriage.](http://time.com/3895777/bachelorette-kaitlyn-amy-schumer-laila-ali/) In the extremely unlikely event that this strangely cut-together ad for an episode of reality television is depicting events as they actually occurred, it’s in poor taste. If the gay subplot is being created from whole cloth, it’s far worse than that. Start with the phrase itself: The term “Brokeback” isn’t just a word interchangeable with “gay.” It’s a reference to _Brokeback Mountain_, a 2005 film (and before that, a short story) that outlines the social conditions that keep gay men from ever acknowledging, even to one another, their true feelings. The movie ends with one man dead; the other is a shell of a human being. To use the “Brokeback Bachelor” term knowing its repercussions is grotesque. This could go either way, but neither path looks good for ABC. There’s a crass, freak-show element to the _Bachelorette_ promo, as when the voice-over indicates the episode “will blow your mind.” The lewd double-entendre aside, only on _The Bachelorette_ would the existence of gay people be treated as mind-blowing. And one of the two cast members in question has made a series of strange jokes on Twitter about the episode, referring to himself as a “[woman](https://twitter.com/ClintonArlis/status/603410427549077504)” and saying he hopes to be like _Brokeback_‘s [Heath Ledger](https://twitter.com/ClintonArlis/status/603570031180554240), the actor who played the more masculine of the movie’s two lovers. Enough time has passed since the movie’s release, and enough legal and cultural victories have been won by gay people, that this could be framed as all-in-fun japery. But who’s laughing? A simple understanding of how reality-show promotion works indicates that this gentleman is probably not, in fact, a gay man, and that the “Brokeback Bachelors” are just having a laugh. > [](http://twitter.com/jjhlane/status/603460637868490753) And it’s almost refreshing to see cast members in a show that’s so consistently obfuscated its motives be so upfront about a set of beliefs and attitudes. When, on _The Bachelor_, [women are shamed for having sex](http://time.com/3892252/the-bachelorette-new-season-kaitlyn-bristowe-promo/), or when the cast, year after year, is mysteriously [almost all-white](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/04/the-bachelor-is-embarrassingly-white/), it’s treated by the show’s host and cast as an embarrassing sideshow, tangent to the proverbial “right reasons” that the singles have gathered together. But while the show, perhaps rightly, has decided it’s not equipped to handle issues of misogyny or class, it either felt the need to entirely invent a gay storyline or market it aggressively, all for the apparent purpose of proving that gay people are funny, weird and mind-blowing. Last year, Juan Pablo Galavis, the then-star of _The Bachelor_, declared in an interview that gay people should not be a part of _The Bachelor_, [saying](http://entertainment.time.com/2014/01/19/the-bachelors-juan-pablo-galavis-apologizes-for-calling-gays-pervert/): “They’re more pervert in a sense.” He was roundly criticized at the time, but his comments seem to be far closer to the heart of what Team _Bachelor_ actually believes. Whatever happens with tonight’s episode, a contrast has been drawn, and drawn sharply. There’s Kaitlyn and her real suitors, there to find acceptable, TV-friendly love, and then there’s the real or perceived threat of homosexuality at the margins. That’s a point of view that would have felt far more current in 2005, when _Brokeback Mountain_ came out—yet it’s one that’s absolutely still with us. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3903270/bachelorette-gay-bachelor-brokeback-abc/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3903270/bachelorette-gay-bachelor-brokeback-abc/"},"headline":"The 'Brokeback Bachelor' Stunt Proves That ABC Is Behind the Times","datePublished":"2015-06-01T17:40:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:47:16.993Z","description":"Two men are advertised on the show as being in love. 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