'Big Brother 17' Cast: Audrey Middleton The First Transgender Houseguest In Show's History?
The Big Brother 17 cast will reportedly have the first transgender houseguest in the reality series' history.
CBS Has Revealed The Houseguests Of 'Big Brother 17'
Audrey Middleton, a 25-year-old digital media consultant from Villa Rica, Ga., is one of the new players set to enter the Big Brother house this summer - but she may be hiding a secret. According to a new report by TMZ, Audrey is transgender, making her the first in the reality show's 15-year history.
In her entire CBS bio Audrey makes no mention of being transgender and the same is true of her interview with Jeff Schroeder. However, during the interview she seemed to be very elusive about certain things and made mention of the fact that she will bring a "very versatile perspective of a character that really hasn't been brought before."
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CBS has not officially confirmed that Audrey is in fact transgender.
Presuming that the TMZ report is true, the casting of Audrey comes at a time when trans issues have become more and more mainstream. Caitlyn Jenner's recent coming out as well as sympathetic trans characters in shows like Netflix's Orange Is the New Black and Amazon's Transparent have brought an entire group of people to the forefront.
It will be interesting to see how Audrey approaches things in the house, considering past seasons of Big Brother have been rife with personal insults regarding race, sexual orientation and more.
Big Brother 17 premieres on Wednesday, June 24 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
