In addition to the big ticket/top tier LGBT heroes of the year (Caitlyn Jenner, Aiden Dowling, Andreja Peijic, Robbie Rogers, Jeremy Scott, and, um, Roland Emmerich?) OUT magazine is saluting four of our favorite people in the annual OUT100 list: Wowlebrities Violet Chachki, Miss Fame, Danny Franzese, and Candis Cayne! Congratulations, y’all! Check out the fab pics and great write-ups below!
Violet Chachki, Drag Performer
Photography by Ryan Pfluger in Brooklyn on September 17, 2015. Styling by Michael Cook. Prop Stylist: Greg Garry.
At this point, RuPaul’s Drag Race has anointed victors of all stripes, from a vaudevillian narcoleptic (Jinkx Monsoon) to a workhorse comedy queen (Bianca Del Rio). Violet Chachki, season 7’s winner, doesn’t fall into any one category. She’s an aerialist. She’s a Bettie Page doppelgänger with a taste for S&M. She’s also a frequenter of thrift shops. “I’ve always felt very at ease and inspired looking at and touching unique items — tchotchkes, if you will,” she says. “It’s part of my creative process.” Though grateful for achieving the “personal goal” of taking the crown, Chachki, like her fellow season 7 alum Miss Fame (see page 132), is all about exploring drag beyond Drag Race, the very mentality that sparked her reaction to the Supreme Court ruling in favor of marriage equality. “I remember thinking, finally!” Chachki says. “Now, what’s next?”
Miss Fame, Drag Performer, Model, Makeup Artist
Photography by Ryan Pfluger in New York on September 3, 2015.
RuPaul’s Drag Race may have given Miss Fame global exposure, but the season 7 contestant was never meant to be bound to the confines of a reality show. Born Kurtis Dam-Mikkelsen, Fame’s moniker doubles as a self-fulfilling prophecy: a brand name built on the assurance that her artistry and notoriety would crack the mainstream. The self-proclaimed “Rolls Royce of Drag,” Fame is seeing her dreams come true, becoming the first drag model to appear in Elle magazine, serving as a makeup consultant on major news networks, and boasting a peerless ability to paint and transform herself (even other queens want the “Fame face”). Yet despite her striking success story she still has humility in her blood, inspiring others as both a queer celebrity and an openly recovered addict. Among her own heroes is another “Miss”: Miss Jane Nelson, her high school art teacher. “She had my back and was a positive influence who pushed me to be creative,” Fame says. “I learned from her and want to contribute to others’ lives in my own way.”
Daniel Franzese, actor and activist
Photography by Ryan Pfluger in Los Angeles on September 28, 2015. Styling by Michael Cook. Hair: Dallin James at The Wall Group. Makeup: Harper at Exclusive Artists Management. Tank top by Calvin Klein. Cardigan by Tommy Hilfiger.
Since coming out publicly in 2014, Daniel Franzese — widely recognized as Mean Girls’ fabulous GBF, Damian — has proved to be anything but “too gay to function.” This year the actor embodied the role of Eddie, an instantly lovable, unapologetic HIV-positive bear on the second season of HBO’s Looking, before becoming an ambassador for the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Now Franzese is completing the first season of the new ABC Family series Recovery Road, while continuing to voice his support for LGBT causes. “We are different and cool and fierce and strange,” he says. “That’s the beauty of our rainbow.”
Candis Cayne, actress
Photography by Ryan Pfluger in Marina del Rey, Calif., on October 1, 2015. Styling by Michael Cook. Hair AND Makeup: Harper at Exclusive Artists Management. dress by Elie tahari available at Saks Fifth Avenue.
Trans actress Candis Cayne made history with her recurring role on ABC’s 2007 series Dirty Sexy Money. But being a trailblazer isn’t easy, and on E!’s I Am Cait, Cayne expressed some vulnerability, the flip side to her glamorous, proud persona. “I have always put on airs, because it’s part of my stage act, and it’s part of being the first trans woman on a network television show,” she says. “I had to represent our community. There couldn’t be a loose brick in this wall! So it was cathartic for me to talk about the problems I’ve had being in this industry, and the misogyny in our gay community against trans women.” Cayne says the enormous outpouring of goodwill and amplified trans visibility due to I Am Cait — on which Cayne has been a confidante and guide to Caitlyn Jenner — have been incredible. “I know it’s changing the world,” she says. “I’ve always been fighting a gale force storm pushing against my chest. For the first time in my life, especially in my industry, I feel like the wind is at my back. Everything is opening up for us now.”
And be sure to check out the entire list here!
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