Gay Bake Off winner faces backlash over ‘transphobic’ tweet
John Whaite has been criticised for an insensitive comment he made about Charles Kennedy’s former wife on Twitter.
Whaite – who won the 2012 series of GBBO three years – caused outrage among fans after he compared the late Liberal Democrat’s former wife Sarah Gurling to Caitlyn Jenner.
After posting an image of Sarah with her son Donald at Charles Kennedy’s memorial service earlier this week, the baker decided to share a rather insensitive tweet with his followers.
“Is that Kaitlin [sic] Jenner with the ginger lad? You just can’t tell these days…” he wrote.
Although the tweet was swiftly deleted, many users had already spotted it, with many slamming his “ignorance” and “disrespect”, while others labelled him “transphobic”.
“Maybe you should consider deleting this tweet? If it was meant as a joke it seems rather misplaced,” one wrote.
“The fact that they were at a memorial service was as insensitive as the Caitlin Jenner jibe. All of it was pretty awful,” another tweeted.
“Very tasteless,” said another. “Especially for a family remembering their loved ones. #CheapShot.”
Another added: “Clearly you don’t have boundaries when it comes to respect? Grow up!”
Following the backlash, John deleted the tweet, before attempting to apologise.
“OMG I honestly had no idea. I’m so sorry for that. I truly am,” he wrote.
Earlier this week, fellow Bake Off contestant Tamal Ray opened up about coming out as gay.
The finalist won thousands of fans when he appeared on the hit BBC One show earlier this year – including a huge gay following after he opened up about his sexuality.
Although the actual coming out conversations themselves were giant canyons of awkwardness, the little freedoms they gave me were priceless,” he said.
