“Fueled” by a federal judge’s decision to recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages in Kentucky, former Miss Kentucky 2010 Djuan Trent has come out as queer in a personal blog post.
“I struggled with the decision of whether or not it was necessary to ‘come out,'” she writes, but “over the past few years, we have seen many celebrities and public figures open up and take this step. And as a result of their actions, we have seen a surge of urgency, awareness and change, as well as a greater sense of community, and individuals building up the courage to share their personal journeys and coming out stories.”
Trent says she feared members of her family would reject her for coming out of the closet. On the contrary, she confirms she’s been “warmed with overwhelmingly positive and encouraging words” since. “Ideally, I would love to one day live in a society where coming out is no longer necessary because we don’t make assumptions about one another’s sexuality and homophobia is laid to rest.”
Trent, who was also a Miss America top 10 finalist in 2011, writes:
How about we take this to the next level?
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I applaud those who take that step in speaking up and speaking out, because in your doing so, you create a sense of awareness amongst your friends, family, and peers, letting them know that this hits a lot closer to home than they may have realized. You create a sense of community, letting others know that they are not alone, and giving them the courage to also speak up and speak out.
Thank you for giving me the courage to change my “they” to “we”, “them” to “us”, and “their” to “our.” You have given me the courage to speak up and speak out when I forget my “QUEER” stamp in the mornings. And I can only hope, that I might inspire someone else in that same way.
Congratulations queen!
Cam
Good for her!
Angelicus
You’re beautiful inside and out. Welcome home Djuan.
GreatGatsby2011
Good for you!
You keep rocking you, Djuan!
GeriHew
Interesting.
Coming out specifically as “queer” is quite ambiguous because now queer is really an umbrella term for anyone who is LGBT or non-heteronormative.
Most of the women her sort of age that I know or know of who identify as queer are basically bisexual but uncomfortable with the term “bisexual” because of the gender-binerism they feel the word implies. I can’t think of anyone who is really a confirmed lesbian who identifies as queer.
http://feministing.com/2010/06/16/whats-the-difference-between-lesbian-and-queer/
But of course it’s already being reported by some sources (including some LGBT websites who should know better) that Djuan Trent has come out as gay. But that’s wrong. Queer is open-ended, it means that she could have a boyfriend or at least be open to having a boyfriend as well as a girlfriend – but maybe only if he is queer too – or not unless he’s a transman, or not at all, etc, etc, etc.
GeriHew
This link:
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