'Survivor' Winners Come Out as Queer on Social Media
Parvati Shallow (L) and Erika Casupanan (R)
Earlier this year, Yamil "Yam Yam" Arocho won Survivor 44, becoming the first BIPOC LGBTQ+ winner, and the first gay winner in 15 years. But 2023 ended with a couple of true blindsides, as season 41 winner Erika Casupanan and season 16 winner and Survivor legend Parvati Shallow both came out on social media on December 30.
Erika shocked fans when she posted on Instagram, talking about the New Year's Eve superstition of eating grapes under the table before the clock strikes 12 to get 12 months of good luck. The text on the video read, "Throwback to last New Year's Eve when I tried to do the 'eat grapes while sitting under a table at midnight and you'll get a boyfriend by the end of the year' trend, but I didn't have grapes so I chugged wine and instead that year I realized I'm a lesbian. Close enough, right?"
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But we were not done there. Later in the day on the 30th, Parvati posted a strip of photo both pics kissing with award-winning comedian and actress Mae Martin. "We’re here. We’re queer. Happy new year," she simply wrote. Both her and Erika's posts have received massive support from both Survivor fans and alumni.
A four-time Survivor competitor, Parvati is often put on the Mount Rushmore of players. After making her debut in the controversial Cook Islands season in 2006, she returned as a "favorite" for Fans vs. Favorites in 2008. Considered one of the best seasons of the show, she ran the game as part of the all-woman "Black Widow Brigade," and went on to win the sixteenth installment.
Parvati came back once again 2010 for the twentieth anniversary season Heroes vs. Villains as part of the villains tribe. It was there where she cemented her legacy even more, overcoming being an early target to make her way to the finals once more. While her double idol play has lived on in Survivor hall of fame moves, she lost to Sandra Diaz-Twine, who became the first two-time winner. It would be a decade before Parvati would return one last time for another anniversary season, the all-winners Winners at War. Ironically, she and Sandra once again finished next to each other, both voted out on Day 16. Parvati will also be competing on the upcoming season of Peacock's The Traitors.
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The season after Parvati's last time on Survivor, Erika made her debut. The communications manager was part of the first season of the "new era," which saw the show reduce its schedule from 39 days to 26 and saw new "dangerous" twists and advantages. And Erika took a part in its most controversial. Exiled by herself at the new "mergatory" phase, she was given the opportunity to smash an hourglass and travel through time. That reversed the results of the team challenge that just occurred, stripping immunity from the group that just won and giving it to the losing group.
The first half of Survivor 41, Erika was shown to be playing a quieter game, never going to Tribal Council in the premerge portion. But in the beginning of the season, she said her role would transform from a lamb to a lion, and she proved to do just that. After being targeted by the show's biggest power player, she helped form a new alliance that ran the rest of the game. In the end, she near-unanimously became the first winner of the "new era." Erika was the first woman winner in seven seasons, and both the first Southeast Asian and Canadian winner in the show's history. Erika also competed on the first season of Canada's version of The Traitors earlier this year.
Next, check out our interview with Survivor 45 winner Dee Valladares.
