Djuan Trent, a Former Miss Kentucky, Comes Out as 'Queer' By Tim Nudd Djuan Trent, who won the crown of Miss Kentucky in 2010 and finished in the top 10 of the Miss America competition in 2011, has made history by coming out as a lesbian – the first national pageant contestant to do so. She made the announcement in a lengthy post on her blog. "I have written and re-written and deleted and restarted this post more times than I care to share," she wrote, "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." Trent, 27, said she struggled with her decision but decided to come out because of Kentucky's current battle over gay marriage. The state's ban on recognizing out-of-state gay marriages was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge last month. "People can't know that their best friend, brother, sister, co-worker, neighbor, news anchor, favorite singer, or local coffee shop barista is being oppressed and denied the rights in which their heterosexual counterparts [that] are so happily welcomed partake, unless you open your mouth and say it," Trent wrote. In a follow-up post, Trent wrote that she had three goals with her announcement – self-liberation, inspiration and awareness – and said her "heart is warmed from the overwhelmingly positive and encouraging words" from her supporters. She also wrote about Ellen Page's decision to come out, which happened a week before Trent's announcement. "Listening to her speech, I was able to relate on so many levels," Trent wrote. "But this is what really hit me: 'I am tired of lying by omission…' Girl, what?! For real! Lying by omission and using non-descript pronouns … that gets really old, really quick." Former Miss Kentucky Reveals What It Was Like To Come Out As Queer Miss Kentucky 2010 had a secret. Djuan Trent, the strikingly gorgeous beauty queen who’s lived her whole life in the south, didn’t quite know how to tell people, or herself for that matter, that she is queer. So she put it up on her blog, Life in 27, and sat back to see what would happen. She didn’t expect much attention, but “queer beauty queen” does have a nice ring to it. Many still didn’t know what to make of the term “queer,” finding sexual fluidity much harder to grasp than the easily digestible gay or straight. “To me it’s understanding that we as human beings reserve the right to be attracted to a person, to a soul, and not necessarily the sex that’s attached to that,” she explains. “You could go through your whole life being attracted to only men or only women and then you meet that one person who’s not what you had been attracted to, but that’s OK because you have that connection and it works.” Nor was it an easy concept for Djuan herself to come to terms with while she was exploring identity, labels and instinct. “All of the guys I dated, I would tell them ‘So I think you need to know this about me. I used to be attracted to girls but now I’m not anymore. I prayed it away and that’s a part of my life that doesn’t exist anymore,’” she says. Djuan is the subject of a Story magazine cover profile, and the 27-year-old comes across with poise and reflection that go beyond her years. She talks about her religious upbringing and how it clouded her coming out process, her family’s reactions and how she plans to use her platform to “make some difference.” And we don’t think she means world peace. Head here to read the full profile.
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Lexington Pride Festival Saturday, June 28, 2014 2014 Entertainment Schedule
11:00 -11:30 AM: Welcome/Proclamation from Mayor Jim Gray & Presentation and Performances by Mr. and Miss Lexington Pride 11:30 AM – Noon: SisterSound Noon – :12:30 PM: TBA 12:30 – 2:00 PM: Dance Break – Battle of the DJ’s – DJ ea and DJ Brady 2:00 – 3:00 PM Afternoon Community Drag Show 3:00 – 4:00 PM: March Madness Marching Band 4:00 – 5:30 PM: Kung Fu Grip 5:30 – 6:00 PM: Dance Break – DJ Crow (Soundbar) 6:00 – 7:00 PM: Josh Zuckerman 7:00 – 8:00 PM: Evening Community Drag Show 8:00 – 9:00 PM: Dario Indiana state capitol in Indianapolis. INDIANAPOLIS — Same-sex marriage is an issue that never seems to die in Indiana politics.
The most recent battle is being played out inside the Republican Party, as delegates to the party’s upcoming convention ponder whether the GOP platform should support defining marriage as being between one man and one woman. The platform-writing committee raised the issue last week after it voted to include language saying that marriage between one man and one woman is essential for supporting the development of society. The question will now go to the roughly 1,700 delegates scheduled to attend the convention in Fort Wayne next month. For Hoosier politicos, it’s an issue that just keeps cropping up. Before the party platform fight, conservative Republicans used the issue to oust two incumbent Republicans in primary elections earlier this month. And just a few months before that, state lawmakers waged the premier battle in the Indiana General Assembly. They could have largely settled the issue, but instead delayed any clear answers until 2016, and possibly longer. When state lawmakers convened for their 2014 session in January, the proposal to write Indiana’s existing gay marriage ban into the state constitution quickly dominated debate. Hours of testimony in House and Senate hearings were matched by daily protests at the Statehouse from supporters and opponents of the ban. Jim Bopp, the Terre Haute attorney who first suggested adding the marriage clause to the party platform two weeks ago, said he sees broad support for his position. He notes that while lawmakers effectively kept the issue from the ballot this year, many of their public statements focused on concerns with banning civil unions but did not deal with the core issue of marriage. “I understand there were some active efforts in the last legislative session against the constitutional amendment, but it mainly focused on the second sentence (of the proposal), which dealt with civil unions. When you got down to it, it was less than 10 percent of lawmakers that opposed it,” Bopp said of placing the ban in the constitution. On the other side of the issue, Megan Robertson led the fight against the ban as campaign manager for Freedom Indiana. Along with Bopp, she will be a delegate at the Republican convention. The GOP’s leaders could put an end to the constant debate if they wanted to, she said. “The most frustrating thing about this is you have leaders of the party consistently saying this is an issue they’d rather not deal with. But when it comes down to it, nobody is willing to stand up and say something,” Robertson said. The issue has been a tough one for Gov. Mike Pence, House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, and Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne. Bosma caught flak from social conservatives shortly after the House passed its version of the ban. They said he had promised the ban would pass in its original form, placing it on track for the November ballot. Bosma said he consistently promised the issue would be vetted by the full House of Representatives, but no more than that. Long sanctioned one of his members, Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, after Delph held a Statehouse press conference accusing Long of scuttling efforts to get the ban on the November ballot. And Pence largely avoided the issue after giving it top billing in his second State of the State address. Regardless of what happens during the convention, count on the constitutional amendment being resubmitted for consideration during the next session. The question will be whether the issue is pushed to the fore again, or whether party leaders decide to let it be. © 2014, Associated Press, All Rights Reserved. The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister: In nineteenth century Yorkshire wealthy orphan Anne Lister lives with an aunt and uncle, anxious for her to marry well and blissfully unaware that she is a lesbian,recording her thoughts and exploits in a coded diary. When her lover Mariana Belcombe makes a marriage of convenience to rich old Charles Lawton,she feels betrayed and,although Mariana visits and has sex with her,the relationship is going nowhere. Helped by old flame Tib she makes a play for innocent Miss Browne but sees she is barking up the wrong tree and diverts herself by renovating the family hall. A drunken Tib almost exposes her secret and scornful mine-owner Christopher Rawson,whose marriage proposal she rejects,tells her that her sexuality is a subject of local gossip. Undeterred Anne meets Ann Walker who becomes her new 'wife' and they open a coal-mine ,living happily together. An end title tells us that Anne Lister died prematurely in 1840 on holiday in Russia. Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician who became the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Politics and gay activism were not his early interests; he was not open about his homosexuality and did not participate in civic matters until around the age of 40, after his experiences in the counterculture of the 1960s. Milk moved from New York City to settle in San Francisco in 1972 amid a migration of gay men to the Castro District. He took advantage of the growing political and economic power of the neighborhood to promote his interests, and ran unsuccessfully for political office three times. His theatrical campaigns earned him increasing popularity, and Milk won a seat as a city supervisor in 1977, part of the broader social changes the city was experiencing. Milk served almost 11 months in office and was responsible for passing a stringent gay rights ordinance for the city. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, another city supervisor who had recently resigned but wanted his job back. Milk's election was made possible by and was a key component of a shift in San Francisco politics. The assassinations and the ensuing events were the result of continuing ideological conflicts in the city. Despite his short career in politics, Milk became an icon in San Francisco and a martyr in the gay community. In 2002, Milk was called "the most famous and most significantly open LGBT official ever elected in the United States". Anne Kronenberg, his final campaign manager, wrote of him: "What set Harvey apart from you or me was that he was a visionary. He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us." Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Milk: The story of Harvey Milk, and his struggles as an American gay activist who fought for gay rights and became California's first openly gay elected official
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