Wildlife TV presenter Dan O’Neill was told to ‘play down’ his sexuality
"People are often shocked to hear what my job involves – they don’t think I’m 'masculine' enough to hack through a jungle," says Dan.
Words: Jamie Tabberer; picture: Instagram/danowild/BBC
Wildlife TV presenter Dan O’Neill has opened up about being told to “play down” his sexuality for his work.
In an op-ed for i, the star also described an unsuccessful TV meeting where bosses later said of him: “He’s gayer than we expected.”
Dan had the last laugh, however: the filmmaker has landed a new BBC show called Snow Leopards: Ghosts in the Snow [watch below].
“it’s a huge blow”
Biologist Dan said in his article: “Like most LGBTQI people, I’ve been called names all my life. I’ve been advised by people in my industry to ‘play down’ my sexuality – and I have done. People I meet are often shocked to hear what my job involves – they don’t think I’m ‘masculine’ enough to hack through a jungle with a machete or sleep in a hammock for three months.”
The adventurer added: “Once, I was in a meeting at a production company in London to pitch ideas for a new programme. I guess I was getting excited about an idea and talking about it in an excitable way… I found out afterwards that one of the leaders of the meeting said: ‘He’s gayer than we expected.’ I never got a call from them again.”
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“Such comments might seem harmless on the surface, but it’s hard, because you spend so much of your life learning to love yourself and become OK with who you are. So when things like that happen, it’s a huge blow.”
Snow Leopards: Ghosts in the Snow is available to watch on BBC Earth from Earth Day today [Thursday 22 April]. According to the official synopsis, the show sees Dan on a “mission to the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, where he finds out the real stories behind one of our most charismatic, elusive, and endangered animals.
“In this series we see how politicians and conservationists, farmers and rangers can work together, with snow leopard conservation which benefits everyone, taking him on a journey from the capital Bishkek, to the wild, freezing, rugged mountains where snow leopards live, only accessible by horse.”
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