This year’s UK semi-final commentator, Rylan Clark Neal, has opened up about a homophobic ordeal which occured during his time in Lisbon.
They found it too “provocative“
The revelation came during a discussion with fashion consultant, Gok Wan on the ITV breakfast show This Morning, which Rylan was co-hosting. The segment focused on The Global Pride Makeover campaign, an organisation helping to raise awareness about the prejudices faced by the LGBTQ+ community.
When speaking of personal experiences, Rylan explained how he himself faced homophobia during his reporting of Eurovision in Lisbon. The TV host described how one of the interviews he conducted with another country was axed by the broadcaster as it was deemed too “provocative”.
The 29-year old expressed his feelings to the situation, stating that he felt they had a problem with his sexuality. Although reluctant to reveal the country in question, he hints that they had their own issue at the contest which he believes, fueled their reason to cut his interview.
“I thought, ‘How could I have been provocative?’ The BBC looked at it back, we had a representative in Lisbon looking back as well and all I will say is there is an issue which happened in that country in Eurovision and I very much sensed why they didn’t want that interview to go out.
Watch the full discussion from This Morning below