Ofcom to investigate Christopher Biggins’ biphobic comments on Celebrity Big Brother

Ofcom are planning to investigate derogatory comments made about bisexuals by actor Christopher Biggins in this year’s season of Celebrity Big Brother.

A number of complaints were made after the television personality implied that bisexuals were being dishonest about their sexual identity.

Biggins sparked outrage during a discussion with fellow contestant Renne Graziano in which he described bisexual people as “not wanting to admit they’re gay”, and called them “the worst type” of LGBT people.

Disappointed in Biggins and Renee after that conversation #CBB

— Michelle Visage (@CBBMichelle) August 1, 2016

Days later, the star said that HIV was spread by bisexual people who “brought it back to their own families in America (from abroad) and that’s how it became a worldwide disease.”

He was finally removed after making a series of remarks about the holocaust, which were deemed not suitable for broadcasting.

In a statement to The Guardian, Ofcom said: “We’re investigating whether a contestant’s comments about bisexual people were offensive and breached generally accepted standards.”

Earlier this week, writer Lewis Oakley hit out at biphobia from both within and outside of the LGBT community for Bisexual Visibility Day, writing: “I do feel like some subgroups have done much better out of the LGBT movement than others. Gay men have achieved unimaginable success, yet bisexuals are still trailing behind with the stabilisers on fighting to simply have their sexuality taken seriously.”

Meanwhile, a 2015 study found that a worryingly high proportion of bisexual people felt they had to pretend to be either exclusively straight or gay to avoid discrimination.

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