Former Miss Kentucky Djuan Trent says she decided to come out, in part, because of a Feb 12 federal court ruling that gay couples’ marriages conducted in other states must be recognized by Kentucky.
In a Feb 20 blog entitled “Turning They into We,” Trent, who identifies as queer, said that it’s taken her months to decide what and how to write the post and when to post it and that she wondered if it was necessary for her to come out at all.
She adds, “What has prompted my writing today has been my questioning people’s constant assumption that a) I am hetero and b) I concur with their views and opinion. I would find it rather odd if a man walked up to me and expected me to agree that I should be paid less than my male counterparts. I would be baffled if a white person walked up to me and expected me to agree to use a different water fountain than my white counterparts. I would be baffled with these approaches because it should be seemingly easy for one to look at me and see that I am woman, just as it is also pretty obvious that I am black. But sometimes, I forget to put the ‘QUEER’ stamp on my forehead on my way out the door in the mornings. So, on the mornings that I forget my stamp, I have realized that there is really no way for people to know that I disagree with their views or, even moreso, to know that they are talking about me, unless I actually open my mouth and say it.”
In a follow-up post, Trent says the support she has received since she came out has been “overwhelmingly positive.”
She thanked, among others, family, friends and people in the pageant world for their encouragement and says she drew inspiration from actress Ellen Page’s coming-out speech, the television series The L-Word and the LGBT community.
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