a gay big brother contestant brought up fridges in a conversation about trans people. a drag race winner told him to get in the bin.

via PinkNews, Digital Spy and Out

There is a particular kind of gay man who got his rights, locked the door behind him and now wants to talk about refrigerators. Big Brother UK has one this series, and Danny Beard has met him.

Philip Regan is 53, a content creator from Liverpool who calls himself "The Queen of Scotty Road," and a housemate on series four of Big Brother UK, Capital FM reports. In the episode that aired Sunday, Oct. 4, the house got into a conversation about trans people. When housemate Rochelle said she would not be comfortable sharing a toilet with a trans person, Philip answered, "I know what you mean." Then came the line: "If you wanna be classed as a fridge, you're classed as a fridge." That is the wording both Out and Digital Spy transcribed. (Several outlets have since shortened it to "identify as a fridge." He did not say that, and the real version is somehow worse.)

He also offered, for the record, "I know all about community."

what danny beard said

Beard, who won RuPaul's Drag Race UK, went on the companion show The Group Chat, hosted by GK Barry and Kate Lawler, and was asked about Philip. PinkNews and Digital Spy both carry what came next.

"Don't get me started on him, because I loved the Queen of Scotty Road when he came in," Beard said. "I'm not into anyone from any kind of community pulling up the ladder behind them. Language changes, communities change, we should fight for all of our community."

Then the history lesson. "And we look back, 2004, one of the best winners ever, Nadia," Beard said, meaning Nadia Almada, who won Big Brother that year. "Proud trans woman. And then we cut to 2026 and we've got people making fridge comments? Get in the bin!"

It is a good point and a better punchline. The show this man is on was won by a trans woman 22 years ago, while he was presumably already old enough to have opinions about appliances.

what has not happened

We could not find a statement from ITV on the remarks, or any response from Regan. Ofcom counted 1,654 complaints about the series in the week the episode aired, according to Capital FM, but Capital's breakdown does not tie any of them to this conversation, so we are not going to pretend it does.