Aussie Drag Queen Courtney Act Just Won Celebrity Big Brother
"It's validation that it's okay to be different"
Aussie drag legend Courtney Act has just been crowned the winner of the UK’s Celebrity Big Brother, beating out conservative politician Ann Widdecombe in the season finale.
Act has been absolutely charming the pants off viewers since she first entered the Big Brother house in early January, and has long been the fave to win the series.
What’s more, though, she’s been using her spot on the show to casually educate the UK public on gender identity and sexuality, and she’s been doing a pretty incredible job.
Over the course of the show, she’s broken down complex ideas about gender fluidity into simple, accessible conversations, and engaged Widdecombe in particular — who’s been quite vocally opposed to LGBTIQ+ rights in her time — in patient, constructive dialogue that audiences could learn a lot from.
It’s pretty fitting, then, that Act has described her win as “validation that it is okay to be different”, albeit a little ironic in a season themed “Year of the Woman”.
Ladies and gentlemen, with one final message to the fans, it's your WINNER Shane J / @courtneyact! #CBB #CBBFinal pic.twitter.com/9H6VSB26kU
— Big Brother UK (@bbuk) February 3, 2018
CONDRAGULATIONS @courtneyact!! You educated the world and represented the LGBTQ community in the most positive light! A true Queen! ?? https://t.co/xL7QH1tJSW
— RuPaul's Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) February 2, 2018
“My inspiration for coming into the house was that teenage boy who didn’t quite know where he belonged or how he fit in and feeling inspired by the Spice Girls,” she said in her post-win interview. “Not knowing what that meant but knowing it was okay to be different too.”
Anyway, it’s pretty neat that when it came down to it, viewers voted for a gender-nonconforming, queer-identifying person over a former conservative politician who spent much of the show continuing to spout pretty harmful opinions to an enormous audience. In this day and age, that’s something we can never take for granted.