The Bachelorette is still 12 hours away from its season premiere and contestant Bryce Powers is already stirring up controversy.
You don’t need to read The Bachelorette spoilers to know why, either. Just Powers’ own words, via a Q&A session on ABC’s bio.
Bryce (pictured above), is being slammed online over a negative comment he made about transgender people on the show’s website.
The network’s site devoted to The Bachelorette features Q&As with the 31 men who will be competing to win Rachel Lindsay’s love.
For that feature, Powers, a 30-year-old Florida firefighter, was asked the time-honored question, “What’s your biggest dating fear?”
His response? “The chick is actually a dude.”
Most likely nothing more than an attempt to be funny with a throwaway answer to a throwaway question he thought about for half a second?
That’s what we’re assuming. But many Bachelorette fans on Twitter were not having it once this response started to circulate online.
Sharon Needles, who fans of reality TV may remember as the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race season four, tweeted in response
“Bryce from the Bachelorette’s biggest fear is trans women who are attempting to conceal their birth sex. I see why yer single, douche bag.”
Other transgender individuals were equally harsh on him. One took him to task for the comment with some pretty impressive shade.
ABC later removed the question and answer the bio.
“This comment does not reflect the views of ABC, Warner Horizon or [The Bachelorette star] Rachel Lindsay,” a studio rep said in a statement.
“We have removed it from ABC (dot) com.”
Pretty tone deaf of Bryce to say that, and perhaps more so of ABC to post his answer, even if there’s no negative intent there.
Powers has not commented directly on the controversy as of press time, and The Bachelorette Season 13 premieres tonight.
Perhaps, with talk of Bachelorette spoilers and other absurd antics playing out on TV in just a short while, this will blow over.
It appears that Season 13 will end in a proposal.
Rachel Lindsay is engaged, she confirmed last week during a conference call in advance of her debut in the starring role this week.
“I am getting my happy ending!” she said.
Will Bryce be one of the contenders, or will his time on ABC be as short-lived as that answer? See who he’s up against below!
