![](\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/SEI_160221528-f0aa.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
On Wednesday night, Cheryl Hole became the third drag queen to appear on Celebrity MasterChef.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
If there was any homophobic backlash about either of them appearing in a cooking contest there wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
Before she\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n
The complaints varied, even if they were all warped.<\/p>\n
Cheryl \u2013 real name Luke Underwood \u2013 was called names I\u2019d rather not platform, hit with unthinkable allegations with absolutely no base to them, and the BBC was accused of throwing \u2018politics\u2019 down viewers throats simply by the presence of a drag queen.<\/p>\n
Others specifically took issue with her drag name, a clear and smart play on Cheryl\u2019s idol Cheryl Cole.<\/p>\n
\u2018Cheryl Hole knows exactly what he\u2019s doing and exactly how offensive that is to women. Women have been referred to as \u201choles\u201d by abusive misogynist men for centuries,\u2019 tweeted one critic.<\/p>\n
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser thatsupports HTML5video<\/p>\n
If they\u2019d bothered to look into Cheryl\u2019s name before spouting hate, they\u2019d know the \u2018hole\u2019 has nothing to do with women \u2013 it\u2019s referring to bottoming in gay sex. Quite literally nothing to do with a vagina.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u2018Aw Babe, I love that. Thank you so much. I can\u2019t thank you enough.\u2019<\/p>\n
Sounds like she might be OK with it.<\/p>\n
Once again, homophobia is being disguised as a defence of women. There\u2019s no real concern for Cheryl Cole in this because, firstly, she is absolutely fine, and secondly, it\u2019s so transparently an excuse to punch down on the LGBTQ+ community and in this case a harmless drag queen.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Not a single attack on Cheryl, of which there have been many, is founded in any truth or rational thought \u2013 and trust me, I have scoured through countless cruel tweets about\u00a0her for two days.<\/p>\n
Listen to drag queen Crystal talk about the homophobia drag queens face below<\/em><\/p>\n 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\u00a0bigots, be it on social or media or in public, which has become increasingly terrifying for all members of the LGBTQ+ community.<\/p>\n In the same week an LGBTQ+ person\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Attacks on LGBTQ+ people are rising each year, and a recent YouGov poll showed that one in four people in the UK think \u2018unfavourably\u2019 about trans people.<\/p>\n In the two and half years I have been in a relationship, each day the idea of holding my boyfriend\u2019s hand in public or showing a little bit of affection, even in London, is becoming more petrifying. <\/p>\n And with good reason \u2013 the statistics speak for themselves: we are in far more danger today than we were a decade ago or even a year ago.<\/p>\n 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. <\/strong><\/p>\n Find some of our best reads of the week below:<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n And marketing manager Sabreena Dean shares her spot on response to the question, ‘But where are you really from?’. <\/p>\n For LGBTQ+ people, Britain is broken and we have both the physical and mental scars to prove it.<\/p>\n The sad thing is I\u2019m not even remotely surprised by the response to Cheryl appearing on Celebrity MasterChef.<\/p>\n Cheryl herself said ahead of going on the show that she was taking part because LGBTQ+ representation is so vital, particularly when we\u2019re still knee-deep in so much misguided discourse spurred on by lies and extremism.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Homophobia is more potent than ever before to the point I can\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n I feel completely hopeless.<\/p>\n Thank God for the members of the LGBTQ+ community braver than me, the Cheryl Holes who will make sure we\u2019re represented as we should be \u2013 with fun, wit and courage whether homophobes want to see us or not because cannot, and will not, be bullied into hiding again.<\/p>\n<\/i>More from Platform<\/h2>\n