The Minogue Sisters: a history of supporting the LGBTQIA+ community as Dannii prepares for new TV role

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that Dannii Minogue has stepped up to be the presenter of a new reality dating series coming to BBC. Not that she’s starved for work, but given that the premise of the show is a unique take on the reality dating format, one long overdue perhaps, it ticks two boxes for Minogue: supporting the LGBTQIA+ community once again and fulfilling a dream job she’s longed for.

She revealed during the announcement for the new BBC series I Kissed A Boy that her “close friends know that my dream job title would be 'Cupid' – so this gives me that flutter-of-love feeling inside too, just to be a part of it. Let's hope there is love, sealed with a kiss! There are millions of people in the UK looking for love. And I believe love is for everyone. So I am so thrilled for a gay dating show to be entering the sea of other dating shows that have existed on TV for years.”

It’s once again a testament to both Dannii and her sister, Kylie, and their continual support of the community that have given so much to them during some of the “quieter” moments of their career, so to speak. In an cynical era where many noble efforts to raise awareness can be called “woke-washing,” it’s a term that has never once been attributed to the Minogues and for good reasons. 

There is a reason why Kylie Minogue is considered a “gay icon,” with her affinity with the LGBTQ community starting back during the ‘80s when she first found fame in the Australian soap Neighbours (with Jason Donovan, who the UK continues to have a perennial soft spot for) and her fledgling musical career. “I Should Be So Lucky” became somewhat of an anthem for those looking to spend their life with a member of the opposite sex in a time where homosexuality was still considered a “taboo” in a puritanical, stiff upper lip British society. 

Be it the loud colour schemes that clashed wonderfully in those early music videos, her upbeat charm and the upbeat, pop friendly production work that made its way into bars in Soho and beyond, the gay community found a friend of Dorothy with Kylie Minogue - and were there for her when she underwent a bit of a career drop in the ‘90s.

Kylie eschewed some of her squeaky clean elements when she left the pop powerhouse Pete Waterman Entertainment, responsible for her early success, and wanted to approach the release of her 1994 album, Kylie Minogue, with a little more maturity to it. Her last album, Let It Go in 1991, received mixed reviews and it felt like her time in the spotlight was up, so there was natural trepidation trying something new.

That new sound led to the release of “Confide In Me,” and began Kylie’s flirtations with darker, moodier dance beats as opposed to the bubble gum production of old. It was celebrated as a return to form by the music press and one of the ‘90s most iconic examples of the crossover between pop and darker forms of dance music. Some were wary this might be just a mid-career bump that won’t last - the gay community begged to differ and continued to champion one of their fierce allies as she supported them despite public opinions.

Having made her comeback officially with the release of Light Years in 2000, spawning the club hits “Spinning Around” and “On A Night Like This,” which also garnered heavy rotation on music television, Kylie decided to celebrate with the community who continued to elevate her despite a career slump. In a now well documented and heavily celebrated moment in Kylie’s career, she took to London’s G-A-Y in June 2000, performing several songs, including "Spinning Around", "Better the Devil You Know" and "Step Back in Time"; she added this with then appearing at London’s Mardi Gras event that same year also.

Which has only gone and led to multiple appearances for LGBTQIA+ events and lending her name to various causes within the community - an act she continues to this day, never once forgetting that despite her receiving musical acceptance finally having outlasted a number of other pop starlets, the gay community were always accepting of her, and she of them. Acceptance seems to be a very apt way of describing the relationship between pop star and community.

Though Dannii Minogue was also not one to suddenly associate herself with LGBTQIA+ rights; “I have been a staunch ally of the LGBTQ+ community for as long as I can remember,” she confirms in the I Kissed A Boy press release from the BBC. Much like her sister Kylie, Dannii's connection with the gay community began in the 1990s when she became a popular dance and pop music artist. Her music and performances have resonated with the LGBTQ+ community, and many of her music videos have featured LGBTQ+ themes and imagery.

Much like Kylie, that reciprocal support between the community and herself has led her to also feature in Pride parades and Mardi Gras across the UK and Australia, and even she had an appearance at G-A-Y much like her older sister. That acknowledgement of the importance of her gay following led to Dannii attributing much of her success based solely on the support of the LGBTQIA+ community throughout her career - a career that was disparaged as just being in the shadow of Kylie. 

Yet again, the community platformed her despite other sections of society, the press and music industry still considering her career a ersatz version of Kylie’s. However, that popularity amongst the community is still something producers, both of music and television, as she has still landed television roles on lucrative franchises such as the UK’s The X Factor. 

Which of course has led to her hosting the UK’s first gay dating show for the BBC; a show the broadcaster boasts will be “packed with explosive drama, gripping cliffhangers and powerful untold stories – from coming out in a strict religious family, to the pressures of body image in the gay dating scene, to navigating self-acceptance, sex and first same-sex relationships.”

Though perhaps there are some sceptics in the community thinking that the BBC has joined the fabulous party quite late in terms of the normalisation of homosexuality in UK society (long overdue might we add), will the addition of Dannii strengthen the show's interest within the community? Would Dannii lend her name to something tacky and insulting to the community that holds her and Kylie so dear? We hope not - and we don’t think so either.