Model Aweng Ade-Chuol kisses wife on the front cover of Elle in response to homophobia

One of the most industry-most in-demand model is also a proud lesbian and she made history by kissing her wife, Lexy, on the front cover of ‘Elle‘. The Sudanese model received homophobic backlash in response to her beautiful wedding earlier this year.

In her interview with Elle, Aweng-Chuol discusses her attempted suicide, which she opened up about on instagram. “We got married and the whole world, literally the whole of my community, were wishing that I passed, in a way…. It was saddening, because it was the happiest day of my life, and they couldn’t let me enjoy it.” Aweng-Chuol spent 3 days in ICU and 6 days in hospital. She is now in therapy twice a week and she has slowed down life to eating, cuddling her wife, walking their dogs and sleeping. Aweng describes her as a “superwoman” in how well she dealt with the traumatic experience and telling Aweng’s mother.

“It was saddening, because it was the happiest day of my life, and they couldn’t let me enjoy it.”

It seems like love at first sight does indeed exist, at least for Aweng as she told Elle: “I’m the kind of person who has met many beautiful people, and it’s like, OK, cool, bye… But after I saw her [they met by chance at a work meeting], I annoyed the sugar out of her until she gave me her personal number”. Aweng married Lexy less than a year later in New York on 12th December 2019 (they even got matching ‘XII’ tattoos on their wedding day of their wedding date).

In being out and proud as a lesbian, Aweng has helped many Sudanese girls who can relate. On being an LGBTQ+ role model, Aweng comments “it’s a lot for one person to handle. I’m human at the end of the day, I’m very human, I’m learning myself.”

At The Femme Edition we know how impactful visibility is for our community and thank Aweng for living her life visibly and inspiring others to do the same.