Venezuelan supermodel Patricia Velasquez, who has modeled for Ralph Lauren, Isaac Mizrahi, Chanel, Victoria’s Secret and Sports Illustrated, came out as gay in her new memoir, Straight Walk. Velasquez, dubbed the “first Latina supermodel, writes that while working as a model in the 1990s, she was living a lie that was “tortuous” and “eroding my soul bit by bit.” The 43-year-old was inspired by her 8-year-old daughter, Maya:
“It’s very difficult to face your past, so I put off doing anything like this for a long time. But as my daughter started growing up and I was teaching her to be honest and proud, I knew it was time for me to set an example — and that meant facing my truth. For me, living life with truth and honesty is the one thing I want to make sure she understands.”
In the 90s, she met Sandra Bernhard through Madonna, and dated her exclusively:
“I was deeply in love with Sandra in a way I’d never experienced before.”
When the relationship ended, Velasquez said she “cried for two years.” Velasquez slowly came out to her family, and everyone has been supportive. She stats she had an ambulance waiting when she told told her mother, so sure that she would have a heart attack. She also felt it necessary to come out in a book, mainly because there’s still so much prejudice in the Latin community about gay people.
“I want to at least start a dialogue. The tide is changing.”
It’s an honest look at someone in the public eye struggling to be themselves. Straight Walk is on bookshelves now. (via Huffington Post)
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