Lauren Jauregui
Fifth Harmony vocalist and self proclaimed feminist Jauregui came out on November 16th , 2016 by penning an open letter, published by Billboard stating she was bisexual. In 2017 she was voted by the public as "Celebrity of the Year" at the British LGBT Awards. She also featured on Halsey's track 'Strangers', which was a milestone in mainstream music as two women were singing a love duet.
Fifth Harmony
The husky voiced singer auditioned for X Factor when she was sixteen and was put into a group, formed by Simon Cowell, along with Ally Brooke, Camila Cabello, Dinah Jane and Normani Kordei.
Rumours began to circulate about Jauregui and Cabello's relationship and fans on the web began shipping and they became known as Camren.
However, Jauregui has always denied that they had a sexual relationship.
Coming Out
"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."
In Jauregui's open letter to Donald Trump voters via Billboard, she wrote,
"Our 'political correctness' that your champion, Donald Trump, so pointedly disregarded throughout his entire campaign and now with the appointment of his advisers 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."
"Proud of the sex between my thighs"
"I am proud to be a woman. Proud that the sex between my thighs
provides a strength and resilience in me that only other women can
feel, that my body curves in ways that allow me to create life within
me, that my entire life is filled with adversity and doubt and people
questioning my intelligence and my artistic potential and my
expression of myself and my virtue and honor because I am too much
woman. I am proud that I get to prove them all wrong. I am proud that
I have to work even harder for it. I was raised to feel that I can do
ANYTHING, and I will always believe that. I am proud to feel the whole
spectrum of my feelings and I will gladly take the label of 'bitch' and
'problematic' for speaking my mind the same way any man would be
admired and respected for doing. But, I will also extend the fullest hand
of compassion and empathy for anyone labeling me as such."
Lauren and Lucy
Although Lauren and Lucy Vives never publicly confirmed they were in a relationship, they did take part in a photo shoot at the end of 2016, as part of their 'coming out.' Although they were apparently in an on/off relationship for quite some time, many believe that Lucy was just a smoke screen to cover Lauren's relationship with Camilla.
Photographer Nicole Cartolano told MTV, "Both girls trusted me to photograph them together as sort of a coming-out, but they were nervous about how their families would respond and the publicity they'd attract, especially from the Latin American community. 'Bare with me' is a compromise, which allowed us to describe what Lauren called 'Love in the 21st century.' We felt like the way that these photographs are presented are very disarming, sensual, and empowering all at once...It was important to use their voices to show the world that this is okay, this is acceptable, in the gentlest way possible."
Strangers
In 2017, Lauren featured on Halsey's track 'Strangers.'
In a radio interview, Halsey explained,
"I was thinking to myself, if I want this song to be believable, it needs to be real, so I'm not going to put a girl on the song to sing who's straight. I'm just not going to do it. So I reached out to Lauren and she came in and she cut the vocal and it sounds awesome. Our voices sound really cool together because we both have really raspy voices, mine's a little more delicate than hers. Hers is like really powerful and big and raspy, and mine is kind of like light and raspy. But it's really cool. I just love that Lauren and I are two women who have a mainstream pop presence doing a love song for the LGBT community, it's unheard of."
Sexuality and Labels
Lauren spoke about her sexuality to Out Magazine, saying, "Even the fact that I labeled myself makes me mad sometimes, because dude, I'm just a free spirit. I was in a Latin household and part of a Catholic community. What was I going to do?
“People still talk shit. But it’s like, why does it make you feel gross? You can watch a kid get bombed and not do anything about it, but you can’t watch me kiss my girlfriend? Go fuck yourself.”
