Tag Archives: Djuan Trent

KitschMix’s Top 10 Out Women Who Totally Rocked 2014

In terms of representation, queer women have had a fantastic year. From the many queer female characters in our movie theatres (e.g Life Partners) and in our TV shows (e.g Orange is the New Black) to the monumental human rights decisions that have taken place this year (e.g the many US states that now have same-sex marriage), things are on the up.

We’ve also seen many queer women come out – or, if they were already out, they’ve been kicking ass and taking names all year round. And so, to celebrate these out and proud ladies, we’ve put together this list!

1. Ellen Page

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Possibly the biggest coming out story of the year was when Oscar nominated actress Ellen Page came out.

After years of rumours and speculation the tiny Canadian actress put them all to bed, telling the crowd at the HRCF Time to Thrive Conference she was ‘tired of lying’ about who she is. The moving speech brought many to tears and plenty of credited it with being the reason that they themselves have come out.

And, as if her amazing speech wasn’t enough, Page also spent the year being wonderful on Twitter, most preciously by renaming people’s pets!

2. Brittney Griner

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A trailblazer by many accounts, Brittney Griner made headlines last year when she came out ahead of the 2013 WNBA draft (where she was the number 1 pick). Then, with the Phoenix Mercury she broke the WNBA dunk record in her very first game. With her phenomenal talent she also won over fans when she helped take the Phoenix Mercury to a championship title in September.

As for other records she became the first out athlete to get a Nike campaign, showing that no, being gay does not harm your marketing potential.

Furthermore, Griner also got engaged to fellow WNBA player Glory Johnson in August, which may not have set any records but it was certainly adorable.

3. Mary Lambert

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While you know her best for doing the backing vocals of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ track ‘Same Love’, Mary Lambert is also a massively outspoken gay rights activist.

An out and proud lesbian herself, Lambert very often talks about religion and how it relates to sexuality as well as body image and how to appreciate yourself. Earlier this year she also launched the Body Love campaign to encourage people to love themselves.

4. Emily Rios

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Emily Rios’ name will be familiar to those who watch cult TV classics Friday Night Lights and Breaking Bad but more recently you may have seen her play a young gay reporter in The Bridge.

While the show was sadly cancelled back in October after two seasons, Rios’ character in The Bridge was significant because we got to see a queer Mexican woman on our TV screens, which doesn’t happen very often. Rios also explained that “I’m gay, personally, so being Mexican and a lesbian — this is why I love the character because I deal with the same type of things with my own family.”

5. Angel Haze

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Whilst straight rapper Macklemore may have picked up plenty of awards for Same Love, its this cover by out pansexual rapper Angel Haze that feels like a more honest rendition.

This year, Haze has made headlines not just with her discography of fantastic, hard hitting lyrics but due to her love life too. Earlier this year Haze confirmed that she’s dating model Ireland Baldwin and the couple both flirt on Twitter and hilariously take down those who dismiss their relationship as ‘gal pals’.

6. Djuan Trent

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When we think of the beauty pageant scene, few people would ever refer to it as a ‘progressive industry’ yet surprisingly, at least one former contestant is outspoken about equality.

Djuan Trent, Miss Kentucky 2010, came out as ‘queer’ earlier this year explaining that she needed to hit back against those who thought that she agreed with their anti-equality views.

Trent says that she chose ‘queer ‘ because it’s a more inclusive term and that she hopes to open up the conversation about sexuality being fluid and she also wants to foster more visibility and representation of young women of colour.

7. Samira Wiley

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Samira Wiley is familiar to us as the funny and emotional inmate Poussey Washington in Orange is the New Black. Her amazing performances this season as Poussey dealt with her feelings for her best friend Taystee and as we saw flashbacks to Poussey’s difficult life as the child of an overseas soldier garnered praise and interest, but plenty were talking about Wiley this year for an altogether different reason.

It became public in September that Orange is the New Black writer Lauren Morelli would be divorcing her husband, after striking up a romance with Wiley. The pair had been acting cute together on Instagram for the past year (they were also seen looking close at the Emmys) and the fact that the couple was now out was just the previous icing on the cake.

Wiley also took to New York City’s Pride Parade with the rest of the OITNB cast, making her a bit of an advocate too.

8. Joanna Lohman

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Also garnering headline for dating a colleague is Joanna Lohman. A professional football (soccer) player for the Boston Breakers, she became engaged to fellow Breakers player Lianne Sanderson earlier this year.

Whilst players dating each other is not a total rarity in the world of women’s football (current USWNT player Abby Wambach is married to now retired player Sarah Huffman) they are the first to date a teammate.

In an interview earlier this year Lohman told a reporter that “When someone comes up to you and says, ‘Thank you for being who you are,’ it has much more of a profound impact than, ‘Good game.’”

9. Vicky Beeching

Vicky Beeching

Like the aforementioned beauty pageant scene, the world of Contemporary Christian Music is also an unlikely source of progressive opinion yet that’s exactly what gay Christian singer Vicky Beeching delivered when she came out earlier this year.

Beeching told The Independent: “What Jesus taught was a radical message of welcome and inclusion and love. I feel certain God loves me just the way I am, and I have a huge sense of calling to communicate that to young people.” helping to foster a more accepting viewpoint in the religion.

10. Anna Paquin

Anna Paquin

Finally, we have bisexual actress Anna Paquin.

Paquin came out as bisexual several years ago, following her marriage to her True Blood co-star Stephen Moyer. But does the fact that she’s married to a man make her bisexual identity any less legitimate? Of course not. however, she was forced to explain this to TV host Larry King earlier this year when he was baffled by the concept of bisexuality. Her explanation is an absolute must-see.

Who is your choice for out woman of the year? Leave a comment and let us know!

Changing the Face of Lesbian & Bi Visibility in Entertainment – The Women Who Came Out in 2014

LGBT people often worry about the ramifications of coming out to their families, friendships, work-places, and in their relationships. However, when you live your life in the spotlight the consequences of coming out can be harder. While coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) in the entertainment world, sports or politics has become increasingly less taboo, these experiences are still extremely personal and not met without backlash.

This year we have seen a number of women celebrities step forward, and tell the world they are queer. So here is a list of prominent individuals who came out publicly this year.

Ellen Page, Actress

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Actress Ellen Page, best known for her role as a pregnant teen in Juno, came out as a lesbian during a speech at Human Rights Campaign ‘Time to Thrive’ youth conference in February 2014.

“I am here today because I am gay… and because maybe I can make a difference to help others have an easier and more hopeful time. Regardless for me I feel a personal obligation and a personal responsibility. I also do it selfishly because I’m tired of hiding and I’m tired of lying by omission. I suffered for years because I was scared to be out. My spirit suffered, my mental health suffered, and my relationship suffered. And I’m standing here today with all of you on the other side of that pain.

I am young yes. But what I have learned is that love — the beauty of it, the joy of it and yes even the pain of it — is the most incredible gift to give and to receive as a human being. And we deserve to experience love, fully, equally, without shame and without compromise. There are too many kids out there suffering from bullying, rejection or simply being mistreated for who they are. Too many dropouts. Too much abuse. Too many homeless. Too many suicides. You can change that and you are changing it. But you never needed me to tell you that.”

Ellen Page

Zoie Palmer, Actress

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Canadian actress Zoie Palmer revealed for the first time publicly that she is gay at the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards in March when she thanked her partner Alex Lalonde as she accepted her “Fan Choice Award for Favourite Canadian Screen Star”.

Palmer plays Dr. Lauren Lewis in the Showcase Canadian TV supernatural drama Lost Girl.

Patricia Yurena, Miss Spain

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Reigning Miss Spain Patricia Yurena came out of the closet via an intimate photo of her and her girlfriend Vanesa Cortes which she posted to Instagram. She is now the first openly gay national pageant queen in the world.

“I published the picture completely spontaneously and in an impulsive manner. Thank you for all your support.”

Said Yurena

 Angel Haze and Ireland Baldwin

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Ireland and Angel first sparked romance rumours when they posted pictures on Instagram. The rapper then confirmed their relationship in June, but admitted some people were still struggling to accept them as a couple.

“There are still certain limitations for women. If we were two guys, it’d be insane, negatively insane with the attention. With us it’s all being very positive, the media are like, ‘Oh they’re so cute, they’re best friends.’

An interracial gay couple, I mean that’s just weird for America right now. We f**k and friends don’t f**k. I have never f**ked one of my friends. Once I see you in that way, it doesn’t happen. But we do f**k and it’s crazy and that’s weird to say because I think about it in terms of an audience reading it and them thinking, ‘What the hell?’ But it happens.”

Angel Haze

Emily Rios, Actress

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Actress Emily Rios (The Bridge, Friday Night Lights, Men of a Certain Age and Breaking Bad) has came out as gay in 2014.

“I’m gay, personally, so being Mexican and a lesbian – this is why I love the character because I deal with the same type of things with my own family. Mexican-Americans especially — because this generation, we come into America and your family wants to be proud.

Emily Rios

Maria Walsh, the Rose of Tralee

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The Rose of Tralee is an international competition started in 1959 and open to women of Irish descent from all over the world. It’s held in Kerry County, Ireland and each year a woman who best matches the attributes “lovely and fair” as described in the nineteenth century ballad. This year, the winner was Philadelphia Rose Maria Walsh, and she’s gay, a fact she revealed shortly after winning in August.

“I’m confident in who I am as a person. The Rose of Tralee is about celebrating women’s intelligence, careers, their volunteer work. The question of sexuality never came up. To me, being gay is normal. It’s natural.”

Maria Walsh

Casey Stoney, Professional Football and England Captain

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It was footballer Thomas Hitzlsperger and Tom Daley who inspired Casey Stoney, a defensive player for both the England women’s football and Arsenal Ladies teams, to say she is gay after years of speculation by fans.

“I’ve never hidden it within football circles because it is accepted. But to the outside world, I’ve never spoken about my sexuality I feel it’s really important for me to speak out as a gay player because there are so many young people struggling with being gay. 

You hear about people taking their own lives because they’re homosexual, now that should never happen. They should never feel those pressures. How can I expect other people to come out and speak about themselves if I’m not willing to do that myself?”

Casey Stoney

Djuan Trent, Former Miss Kentucky

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Djuan Trent, Miss Kentucky 2010, came out of the closet in March shortly after a federal judge ruled that Kentucky must recognize same-sex marriages from other states.

“For months, I have been contemplating how I would write this post, how I would position it, when would be the right time to post it. Should I make it funny? Should I make it mysterious? Should I make it serious? Should I pick a special date to do it? Should I build some kind of anticipation around it? Hmmm…ain’t nobody got time for that. I have written and re-written and deleted and restarted this post more times than I care to share, and after all of that I have finally realized: “There ain’t nothin’ to it, but to do it.” So, here we go folks… I am queer.”

Djuan Trent

Monica Raymund

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Monica Raymund, who plays paramedic/firefighter-in-training ‘Gabriela Dawson’ on Chicago Fire, came out publicly as bisexual via a tweet in January in support of efforts to protest Russia’s anti-gay laws during the Olympic Games.

https://twitter.com/monicaraymund/status/432669348281729024


Vicky Beeching

Vicky Beeching

When Vicky Beeching was diagnosed by with an auto-immune disease triggered by the years of stress, caused by being in the closet, she decided to reject the years of desolation the church, and decided to live her own truth. Beeching, the UK star of the American Christian rock scene, whose music is sung at mega-churches across the heartland, had had enough. In August she choose to come out.

“I increasingly began to feel like I was living behind an invisible wall. The inner secrecy of holding that inside was divorcing me from reality – I was living in my own head. Anybody I was in a friendship with, or anything I was doing in the church, was accompanied by an internal mantra: ‘What if they knew?’ It felt like all of my relationships were built on this ice that would break if I stepped out on to it.

When I [told a priest] that I had feelings for the same sex he prayed the prayer of absolution, for me to be forgiven. And that was it….I felt there was something really wrong with me, that maybe I was so sinful and awful I couldn’t be healed.

I felt like it was ripping me in half. I knew I couldn’t carry on. I was trying to align the loving God I knew and believed in with this horrendous reality of what was going on inside me….I remember kneeling down and absolutely sobbing into the carpet. I said to God, ‘You have to either take my life or take this attraction away because I cannot do both.'” 

Vicky Beeching

Lauren Morelli and Samira Wiley, Orange is the New Black’s Lead Writer and Actress

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In one of the best revelations of the year, was ‘Orange is the New Black’ lead writer Lauren Morelli, who back in May wrote an article for Policy Mic describing how working on the Netflix series helped her come to terms with her sexual orientation.

In September, Morelli appeared hand-in-hand at the Emmy Awards with Samira Wiley, who plays Poussey Washington on the show.

“I went through it all on set: I fell in love with a woman, and I watched my life play out on screen….And now, as we are gearing up for the release of season 2, it feels liberating and appropriate to live my life in front of you.”

Lauren Morelli

HRC is Asking All to Celebrate the 26th Annual National #ComingOut Day

The HRC (Human Rights Campaign ), the United States’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, is asking all to celebrate the 26th annual National Coming Out Day (NCOD) – a globally recognized event, which embraces the coming out of all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or as an ally.

Yesterday, HRC President Chad Griffin penned an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, in which he shared his coming out experience, and encouraged folks across the country to live openly and authentically.

“For lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans all across this country, coming out is one of the hardest things they will ever do. No matter what state you call home, a conservative church, community, or even your own family can inadvertently force you to suffer in silence. Even today, living openly in the face of that pressure can require almost superhuman personal strength…..If you feel like you’re not living as openly as you could, consider changing that on Saturday. And if someone close to you chooses Saturday – or any other day – to honor you by revealing the truth about his or her life, know what courage that took, and offer every reassurance and affirmation you can.”

Chad Griffin, HRC President

As part of NCOD 2014, Griffin will be traveling to college campuses in the South next week to participate in forums about the critical importance of LGBT people and allies coming out and sharing their stories.

In addition, through exclusive videos and a week-long blog series leading up to Saturday, HRC has been sharing the diverse experiences of people from all walks of life who’ve come out, and highlighting stories via Facebook, Twitter, and for the first time, Snapchat.

HRC also released a compilation video of celebrities and public figures who made the decision to live openly earlier this year, including Former Miss Kentucky Djuan Trent  and actress Ellen Page, who came out at HRC Foundation’s inaugural Time to THRIVE Conference.

For more information and resources on National Coming Out Day, visit HRC’s Coming Out Center and follow the hashtag #ComingOut.

Beauty Queen, African American, Queer – Djuan Trent Talks to Story Magazine

Djuan Trent was crowned Miss Kentucky 2010 and then went to be a top ten semi-finalist in the Miss America Pageant in 2011 (where she voted the first-ever “Contestants’ Choice”).

However, what really put Miss Trent in the media spotlight was when she announced to the world that she was ‘Queer’.

Yes, ‘Queer’ not a lesbian or Gay, but Queer. In a recent interview with Story – The Magazine she spoke openly about how she feels about it all…

“I had a hard time just saying I’m a lesbian because a lot of the lesbians I knew were women who felt they never had any kind of connection with a man; they could never be with a man because it felt completely unnatural to them, and that wasn’t my story,” she says. “I have been with men, and it was never something like ‘Eww, this feels so unnatural.’”

Djuan Trent, Story – The Magazine


Listen to the interview below: Former Miss Kentucky On Why She Calls Herself ‘Queer’