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Love Island USA Might Have Just Found Its First Same-Sex Couple
Things took a surprising turn during a recent episode.
The most recent season of Love Island USA has taken a refreshingly queer turn after Kassy Castillo and Johnnie Garcia admitted their feelings for one another.
It’s a plot twist fans didn’t see coming, thanks in part to both women previously being involved in a love triangle that pointed towards Leo Dionicio. Dionicio and Castillo had been coupled up until he hooked up with Garcia—only to have regrets and try his best to win Castillo back.
But she wasn’t interested, and it didn’t take long for the two women to set aside their grudges, develop a friendship, and realize it might be something more.
Garcia identified as bisexual prior to coming to the show, while Castillo admitted her friends had suggested she might be bi, but said she had never actually pursued anything romantic with a woman before. That changed after the two kissed, and told the other female contestants what happened between them.
Eventually, we’ll get to the next round of official coupling up on the show, and if Castillo and Garcia decide to choose one another, they’ll be the first queer couple on the USA version of Love Island.
Even the original UK version of the show has been almost completely heterosexual, with only one same-sex pairing in the second season. It’s been a point of contention among fans frustrated that the majority of popular reality dating shows cater exclusively to heterosexual couples and have declined to integrate the possibility of LGBTQ+ relationships into their format.
The way Love Island works, with contestants coupling up, suggests to some that allowing a free-for-all and having a woman choose another woman or a man choose another man could lead to some people stuck with members of the same-sex when they aren’t interested in them, but not every heterosexual couple that ends up stuck together involves both people interested in one another, either, so it isn’t really that different.
Will this mark a turn for Love Island USA? Or just be a one-off quickly buried in its history as it returns to exclusively heterosexual couples? Guess we’ll all have to tune into Peacock to find out.
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
