When Lauren Jauregui landed herself the #1 position on the 2016 AfterEllen Hot 100 this past September, many women from the site’s queer readership were surprised — some hadn’t heard of her, others were just shocked to see a relative newcomer beat out Jennifer Lawrence/Beals. In the comments, Fifth Harmony fans explained that Jauregui was a passionate LGBTQ ally and as deserving of the honor as any of the other straight women regularly voted to top spots on the annual lesbian-curated list. In an interview following the Hot 100 announcement, the 20-year-old singer told AfterEllen that her group embraced their abundant queer female fandom by promoting “girl power,” “acceptance and love.”
Last week, fans came to Jauregui’s “defense” when Perez Hilton posted a photo of Lauren kissing a girl at what appears to be a friends’ wedding. They insisted that the kiss was “playful” and didn’t mean she was a lesbian. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that…) Jauregui herself remained silent as the flames lapped furiously at twitter’s fervent shores.
Keep it classy, Perez Hilton
Until today! Because today, Lauren Jauregui published an open letter to Donald Trump Voters in Billboard Magazine, in which she identifies herself as a proud bisexual Cuban-American. Jauregui was, like so many of us, heartbroken when Hillary Clinton lost the presidency to a giant sack of poisonous gas. She was further enraged by voters who claimed that voting for a “racist, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic asshole” did not make them complicit in those attitudes, and that frustration unfurls gorgeously in her letter:
Your words are worthless, because your actions have led to the single-handed destruction of all the progress we’ve made socially as a nation. You have, with your pure ignorance and refusal to understand the way the government and the world works, allowed a power-hungry business tycoon to take over the United States of America. “The land of the free, the home of the brave, under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for ALL.” You are HYPOCRITES.
She argues that “restoring the America that was” is restoring an America where people of color and LGBT folks and women didn’t feel safe, valid, or strong. She references Mein Kampf. She points out that Donald Trump manipulated everybody into voting for him. She discusses the difficulties of not fitting “the cis heterosexual mold.” She points out that G-d and Jesus Christ himself would not be pleased by this behavior and also that she went to Catholic School so she knows her shit. She talks about being a woman of color with light-skinned privilege and how sad it is that so many beautiful women aren’t able to realize their potential. She calls out white women who voted for Trump.
And she also says this:
Our “political correctness” that your champion, Donald Trump, so pointedly disregarded throughout his entire campaign and now with the appointment of his advisors and other government officials, is the language we have worked tirelessly to establish to feel safe in a world that never stops reminding us we are minorities. I am a bisexual Cuban-American woman and I am so proud of it. I am proud to be part of a community that only projects love and education and the support of one another. I am proud to be the granddaughter and daughter of immigrants who were brave enough to leave their homes and come to a whole new world with a different language and culture and immerse themselves fearlessly to start a better life for themselves and their families.
She closes by advising Trump voters to “travel and read a history book.” She does not make any specific recommendations so I hope they don’t read any of the bad ones (most of them).
Lauren is the second star to come out this week, following actress Bex Taylor-Klaus. At a mere 20 years of age, Lauren joins other entertainers like 18-year-old Bella Thorne and 17-year-old Amandla Stenberg in a rising trend of remarkably young ladies being loud and proud about recognizing what all of us here already know: KISSING GIRLS IS THE BEST. Listen when I was 20 years old I was living in a condo with a frat boy, so cheers to all of y’all.
via instagram
Jauregui has been an LGBT ally for a while, posting recently to her twitter about a friends’ art project for queer/trans teens. She’s also posted about National Coming Out Day, various feminist causes, the importance of voting, and the intense nature of her jove for Alicia Keys. She’s also been widely quoted around the internet as saiyng, “I support LGBT rights and reblog things of girls kissing cause it’s cute.” I can’t find the source but it’s everywhere so it must be true.
Also, she sings what our Staff Writer Alaina has referred to as “The Michelle Obama song.”
When reached for comment, Autostraddle Vapid Fluff Editor Stef Schwartz noted, “Maybe she can date Angelina Jolie.”
Although Lauren did not specifically mention this situation in her letter, I’m sure she would want all of you to join A+ so that we can put more funding towards our pipe dream project of flying Kaylah and Erin to my house so that along with Sarah and other dancers TBD we can do a re-make of the “Work From Home” music video.
The first person I thought of was rose dix. She’s probably flipping out.
Right? I just watched Rosie’s take on “Camren” the other day. It’s admittedly the only reason I was informed about this at all, but hey
Omg same ahaha Rosie and Rose will screaming!
So did I! We will not hear the end of this on her channel.
Yes to the Work From Home recreation. Yes with all my remaining strength.
YES who do I have to throw money at to make this happen
Just stalked her insta a bit and I’m crushing! She’s just my type ?
This is going to make some friends of mine so happy. :D
boss is a great song, but you know whats even better? accoustic live performances of boss. there are a couple on youtube you can find if that sounds like something you might enjoy, but Ive never had any luck at embedding youtube videos in comments here.
Oh good news is so welcome right now!
Yes!!!!
I know this wasn’t the point of this article but Lauren Jauregui being #1 on the AfterEllen was a fluke. It wasn’t just because she beat Jennifer Lawrence/Beals for the top spot (which if memory serves those 2 weren’t even close this year to the top spot) but more so that AE never covered them, like maybe a quick mention barely here and also that she beat out Alicia Debnam Carey who played Lexa that AE was writing about 2x’s per day almost before and after her death. ADC was on EVERYONE’s radar since her characters death started the whole bury your gays movement so it became clear that Fifth Harmony fans (who are a dedicated bunch) saw a poll and banded together to vote even though they were not frequent visitors to the site. Which is not to say a few AE regulars didn’t vote as well but not in the droves that would have given her the top spot. Sorry for going off about this.
As for her coming out, cool. I still couldn’t name you a Fifth Harmony song though.
I had never heard of her before. Now that I googled fifth harmony i found out that I like one of their songs, worth it.
Also that gray suit in the video is super hot
I am so here for all the Bi Latinas that have come out recently!
This comment has been removed as it is in violation of Autostraddle’s Comment Policy. Repeat or egregious offenders will be banned.
Moderators, please remove this comment? (That’s how you do this, right?)
Oh, hector. Sad you’ll never be part of the club?
her girlfriend is lucy vives, carlos vives’ daughter :)
Was just going to mention this! Local Colombian media is mentioning this pictures a lot too. Carlos Vives is a huge local celebrity for us and I would love it if his daughter came out, there’s not many out Colombian women/celebrities. She probably won’t though.
And now I’m picturing Lauren singing to Lucy “Si, si, si, Este amor es tan profundo, Que tu eres mi consentida, Y que lo sepa todo el mundo”
From the inquisitr: “It will be interesting to see if Lauren Jauregui responds to any of this or if it forces her to talk about her sexuality (whether she is gay or straight)”
I guess Lauren didn’t get the memo that those were her only two choices… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I feel like the word bisexual must be blacklisted in the press because they never want to use it.
I wanted I make a joke like “what is that word you just said?” but I’m too frustrated about this!
I watched Bridget Jones’ Baby in the cinema the other day. In one of the scenes the word ‘bisexual’ is mentioned, and the Dutch subtitles literally said ‘homosexual’…
Maybe there is some secret international bi-erasure autocorrect virus distributed by One Million Moms?
i’m so here for that work from home video with all those men being used as props! and for more bisexual latinx!!!!!!!!
I had never heard of Lauren Jauregui before her #1 on the AfterEllen thing but, hey, good for you and Lucy Vives! Welcome to the club!
And that’s Lauren Jauregui, folks. Intelligent, badass, beautiful and powerful. You go girl! Keep on shining!
Congrats to her
Trump voters don’t even need a good history book – we just need white evangelical christians to read evangelical pastor Erwin Lutzer’s (aka not my favorite person) book Hitler’s cross. It has the passage: “‘My parents voted for him because things were so bad they believed they could not get any worse,’ a women who survived the Nazi era told me. ‘They thought, why not give him a chance?’ Millions of Germans agreed. And so it was that in 1932 the Nazis emerged as the country’s largest party, but they lacked a majority. . . . The pundits predicted that the Nazis had passed their prime.”
As a person who has followed the girls of fifth harmony since their early X-Factor days, Lauren has always been the girl that I admired the most. She’s very politically active and is never afraid to speak her mind against ignorance so with the letter as a whole it was so authentically her own and I love the courage that this sweet girl has.