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Dancing With the Stars has announced its third same-sex pairing, with reality star Sarah Jane Nader set to compete alongside professional dancer Hailey Bills.
There will be a little more rainbow on the ballroom floor this season.
For Nader, 23, the pairing is about much more than choreography.
She told Entertainment Weekly that being able to provide the kind of LGBTQ+ representation she did not see growing up “meant everything” to her.
Who are Sarah Jane Nader and Hailey Bills?
Nader appears in reality series Love Thy Nader and follows her older sister Brooks Nader, who previously competed on Dancing With the Stars.
Her dance partner, Hailey Bills, 20, joins the programme as a full-time professional dancer for the first time after previously appearing as part of the show’s dance troupe.
Bills also has a particularly appropriate family connection to DWTS history.
Her aunt is two-time Mirrorball winner Jenna Johnson – who danced in the programme’s first same-sex partnership.
A short history of same-sex couples on DWTS
JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson broke the barrier in 2021 when they became the first same-sex pair to compete on the American edition.
They reached the final and finished second.
The following season brought another milestone when RuPaul’s Drag Race star Shangela competed with Gleb Savchenko, becoming the first drag queen to take part in the show.
Nader and Bills now become the programme’s third same-sex pairing.
That might not sound revolutionary several years after the first.
Perhaps that is precisely the point.
From milestone to normality
Nader says she hopes a time will come when seeing two women dancing together on the programme is no longer considered remarkable.
And that may ultimately be the bigger measure of progress.
LGBTQ+ representation on television has often moved through the same stages: first it is controversial, then historic, then eventually – ideally – completely ordinary.
A same-sex ballroom couple does not need every appearance to carry the weight of an entire community.
Sometimes two women should simply be allowed to dance.
For now, however, Nader is aware that visibility still matters.
She has spoken openly about wanting younger viewers to see something she did not have herself growing up.
When does the new season begin?
Season 35 of Dancing With the Stars will launch with a two-night premiere on 15 and 16 September in the United States.
The new celebrity line-up also includes Julia Stiles, Olympic figure skater Amber Glenn, Giada De Laurentiis, Tatyana Ali, Harry Shum Jr. and others.
Whether Nader and Bills make it all the way to the Mirrorball Trophy remains to be seen.
But their partnership has already achieved something else.
One more queer couple has walked onto mainstream television – and one more “historic first” is slowly becoming something viewers no longer need to think twice about.
