On Wednesday night, Cheryl Hole became the third drag queen to appear on Celebrity MasterChef.
Drag Race UK star Baga Chipz was the first in 2020 followed by Kitty Scott-Claus in 2021. Both of them entered and left the competition without any controversy.
If there was any homophobic backlash about either of them appearing in a cooking contest there wasn’t enough to create the storm, which bellowed on X, formerly known as Twitter, this week when Cheryl, notoriously one of the most joyful drag queens in Britain, entered the kitchen to face judges Gregg Wallace and John Torode.
Before she’d even turned on the oven, Cheryl was trending across social media with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of twisted bigots needlessly outraged that a drag queen was going to be cooking on television.
The complaints varied, even if they were all warped.
Cheryl – real name Luke Underwood – was called names I’d rather not platform, hit with unthinkable allegations with absolutely no base to them, and the BBC was accused of throwing ‘politics’ down viewers throats simply by the presence of a drag queen.
Others specifically took issue with her drag name, a clear and smart play on Cheryl’s idol Cheryl Cole.
‘Cheryl Hole knows exactly what he’s doing and exactly how offensive that is to women. Women have been referred to as “holes” by abusive misogynist men for centuries,’ tweeted one critic.
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If they’d bothered to look into Cheryl’s name before spouting hate, they’d know the ‘hole’ has nothing to do with women – it’s referring to bottoming in gay sex. Quite literally nothing to do with a vagina.
For anyone concerned how the actual Cheryl Cole would feel about her name being comically drag queened up, she made her feeling perfectly clear when they met on Drag Race UK.
‘Aw Babe, I love that. Thank you so much. I can’t thank you enough.’
Sounds like she might be OK with it.
Once again, homophobia is being disguised as a defence of women. There’s no real concern for Cheryl Cole in this because, firstly, she is absolutely fine, and secondly, it’s so transparently an excuse to punch down on the LGBTQ+ community and in this case a harmless drag queen.
Cheryl is part of a Girls Aloud tribute band, which celebrates Cole, Kimberly Walsh, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts and the late Sarah Harding. It is nothing but an honour, which the band themselves will be thrilled by.
Drag is in itself a celebration of the women adored by the LGBTQ+ community, who were there and always will be for us and in countless ways have shaped us as a community and individually. Drag queens love women.
Not a single attack on Cheryl, of which there have been many, is founded in any truth or rational thought – and trust me, I have scoured through countless cruel tweets about her for two days.
Listen to drag queen Crystal talk about the homophobia drag queens face below
While Chery Hole has become the bait for thrilled homophobes to pounce this week, tomorrow and the day after that at there will be another drag queen at the mercy of bigots, be it on social or media or in public, which has become increasingly terrifying for all members of the LGBTQ+ community.
In the same week an LGBTQ+ person’s sheer presence on a cooking show stirred up so much hate on social media, two gay men were stabbed outside a gay club in Clapham, with an arrest yet to be made at the time of writing. Thankfully they both recovered.
Attacks on LGBTQ+ people are rising each year, and a recent YouGov poll showed that one in four people in the UK think ‘unfavourably’ about trans people.
In the two and half years I have been in a relationship, each day the idea of holding my boyfriend’s hand in public or showing a little bit of affection, even in London, is becoming more petrifying.
And with good reason – the statistics speak for themselves: we are in far more danger today than we were a decade ago or even a year ago.
More from Platform
Platform is the home of Metro.co.uk’s first-person and opinion pieces, devoted to giving a platform to underheard and underrepresented voices in the media.
Find some of our best reads of the week below:
An anonymous writer describes her experience of cutting her alcoholic mum out of her life – and why she still sends her presents despite the pain.
Emma Flint recently discovered the term ‘abrosexual’ and realised, after not having the right word to describe their sexuality for 30 years, that this one suited her perfectly.
Comedian Liam Withnail had just completed his second marathon when he fainted and pooed his pants. Assuming he was healthy, he was shocked to be diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.
And marketing manager Sabreena Dean shares her spot on response to the question, ‘But where are you really from?’.
For LGBTQ+ people, Britain is broken and we have both the physical and mental scars to prove it.
The sad thing is I’m not even remotely surprised by the response to Cheryl appearing on Celebrity MasterChef.
Cheryl herself said ahead of going on the show that she was taking part because LGBTQ+ representation is so vital, particularly when we’re still knee-deep in so much misguided discourse spurred on by lies and extremism.
Her point has been proven in the most miserable way, but what scares me more is the more representation we get, the stronger the opposition becomes.
Homophobia is more potent than ever before to the point I can’t actually see how we as a community even respond to it or tackle it when our opponents are so determined to falsely paint us as criminals, monsters and threats to women and children.
I feel completely hopeless.
Thank God for the members of the LGBTQ+ community braver than me, the Cheryl Holes who will make sure we’re represented as we should be – with fun, wit and courage whether homophobes want to see us or not because cannot, and will not, be bullied into hiding again.
Celebrity MasterChef continues tonight at 8pm on BBC One.
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