‘Celebrity Big Brother has become a celebration of equality, women and the LGBT community – don’t let Ann Widdecombe win’

This year’s series of Celebrity Big Brother has become one of the best we’ve ever seen. 

Reality shows aren’t exactly a place you’d expect to learn anything nowadays, but Channel 5’s decision to make the latest run all about female empowerment has helped bring LGBT+ issues to the forefront of people’s minds across the nation. 

Courtney Act and India Willoughby’s presence in the house has helped provoke frank and open discussions about issues many straight people have otherwise been entirely ignorant about, and the show has almost become a tool that’s brought awareness of trans issues to viewers who may otherwise have never felt the need to educate themselves. 

While Courtney and her bromance with Andrew Brady has helped them both become the favourites to win, former politician Ann Widdecombe has rocketed from least favourite to having odds of just 6/1 to be crowned the winner. 

For a series that has turned into a glorious celebration of women and LGBT+ people, it would be an absolute crime for Ann to be crowned the winner.

Okay, so her grumpy attitude and effortlessly gif-able moments are fun to watch, as is her interaction with some of the more attractive male housemates, but don’t let her pull the wool over your eyes. 

Ann is not cute. She is not an adorable and harmless elderly woman. She is not someone to champion. 

This is a woman who has made a political career out of voting against the rights of women and LGBT+ people. 

In 2000, Ann spoke out against the government moving to create an equal age of consent, saying: “I do not believe that issues of equality should override the imperatives of protecting the young.”

We just love the homophobic implication in that sentence, don’t you? 

Her vendatta against the LGBT+ community continued in 2003, when she proposed an amendment opposing repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act, which banned the promotion of homosexuality by local governments.

She’s also made her thoughts about gay marriage clear, telling Courtney during a discussion the house: “If marriage suddenly is no longer between a man and a women, and it’s between a man and a man or a woman and a woman, then why not between one man and two women? Why not polygamy?”

But don’t worry because Ann doesn’t discriminate, she’s not just against the LGBT+ community – she also hates women! She’s remained strongly against abortion, and even spoke at an event for the UK’s biggest anti-abortion group back in 2010. 

For someone so adamant about being respected in the house, perhaps Ann could apply that to those whose rights she’s tried to destroy throughout her career. 

At the end of the day, you can appreciate Ann on a surface level. But this year’s Celebrity Big Brother is all about the celebration of people that Ann has proven time and time again that she has absolutely no respect for. 

Basically, when you get the urge to vote Ann as your winner – take some advice from the Shakespeare of our time: 

#CourtneytoWinCBB

Words: Joshua Haigh