Rylan Clark wanted to "knock out" a man who hurled homophobic abuse at him during filming.
Rylan Clark was shaken by homophobic abuse in Italy
The 35-year-old presenter was shooting his new BBC travel series 'Rob and Rylan's Grand Tour' with Rob Rinder in Italy when they joined an underground drag collective called 'House of Serenissima'.
Appearing on Olivia Attwood's 'So Wrong It's Right' podcast, Rylan revealed how the people would meet "behind closed doors because they didn't feel safe".
The duo joined the group and walked through the streets of Venice, and Rylan recalled: "We were walking through and one thing that really stood out was someone shouted out something in Italian.
"It was a young guy, probably 20 something, I turned to one of the drag queens and said, 'What did he just say?' And they said, 'Burn the f–’ers.'
"I'm now 20 foot in a pair of heels, I wanted to go mad. I wanted to go after this bloke and basically knock him out."
However, moments later Rylan's faith in humanity was given a boost by "the older generation".
He recalled: "200m later there was a group of old nonnas, probably in their 90s, and they all stood up and clapped us.
"It was that realisation of thinking we always blame the older generation for everything, they're backwards in their thinking, when actually it was that generation that was applauding this collective for being comfortable in who they are, and yet it was our generation of people who were shouting out 'burn the f–’s.'"
It was a powerful moment which shows the drag queens that there are people there "looking after" them.
He added: "That was a real realisation moment, not just for us, but for them as well.
"They realised the people they thought we would offend or upset are the ones looking after us. It was really beautiful."
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