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Love Island USA's Johnnie Comes Out As Bi & Starts Romance With Kassy
An exciting same-sex showmance is taking place on Love Island USA season five.
We love to see it!
Contestant Johnnie Garcia came out as bisexual during episode 31 of Love Island USA season five and started a little showmance with costar Kassy Castillo. Given the franchise’s complicated history with LGBTQ+ contestants, this was a very exciting moment for queer fans of the series.
Garcia was introduced at Casa Amor and quickly hit it off with Leonardo Dionicio, who had been coupled up with Castillo prior to the Casa twist. But upon returning to the villa, Dionicio realized he still had feelings for Castillo and broke things off with Garcia.
As fate would have it, Garcia and Castillo started getting very close after they both ended things with Dionicio… and during episode 31, Garcia and Castillo started to play around with each other in a very flirtatious way. Garcia eventually opened up about identifying as bisexual and being attracted to Castillo. In turn, Castillo said that she had never dated girls but felt attracted to Garcia. Before the episode ended, the two islanders shared a kiss and told their fellow islanders what had transpired.
In her confessionals, Garcia revealed that she had been attracted to Castillo ever since she first entered the villa. Which is very ironic, because she entered the villa by coupling up at Casa Amor with Dionicio (Castillo’s then-partner on the show).
Castillo said in her own confessionals that she hadn’t explored this side of her that is attracted to girls, but was open to the idea with Garcia. She joked that her friends had often clocked that Castillo was probably bisexual deep down, but that it had never been more than just a friendly joke.
The original, British version of Love Islandfeatured a same-sex relationship all the way back in season two, when Sophie Gradon and Katie Salmon revealed their attraction to each other and were even allowed to couple up together. However, Love Island producers have long suggested that casting LGBTQ+ contestants bring “logistical difficulties” for the series.
The core format of Love Island includes re-coupling sessions where either the girls or the boys get to pick who they want to be with. Generally speaking, that format does get a little more complicated if islanders were to pick people within their own gendered group. The format of the show could obviously be tweaked to make room for LGBTQ+ people, but that hasn’t really happened so far in any iteration of Love Island.
With season five of Love Island USA now reaching its endgame era, most couples are starting to solidify their relationships in the hopes of making it to the finale. If Castillo and Garcia want to keep pursuing their relationship, it’ll be interesting to see how the show will handle their coupling – that’s if they would even be allowed to couple up in the first place.
There isn’t a solid blueprint for queer showmances on Love Island, so we can’t wait to see how this turns out.
Love Island USA airs nightly on Peacock.
Bernardo Sim is the deputy editor of Out, as well as a writer and content creator. Born in Brazil, he currently lives in South Florida. You can follow him on Instagram at @bernardosim.
Bernardo Sim is the deputy editor of Out, as well as a writer and content creator. Born in Brazil, he currently lives in South Florida. You can follow him on Instagram at @bernardosim.
