Last month, we reported that Queen Latifah was scheduled to be the host of the Long Beach Gay & Lesbian Pride Parade. I speculated that Latifah’s scheduled appearance might be her official “coming out”. Although it’s widely known that Latifah is gay, she’s never confirmed it outright (she’s never denied it either). Latifah had a long-term girlfriend named Jeanette for years and years, although I think Latifah and Jeanette are over, and I believe Latifah is now with a woman named Eboni Nichols. All of this speculation comes via the tabloids and gossip blogs – “legit” outlets like People Magazine would never report on Queen Latifah’s sexuality unless she specifically confirmed or denied it.
Anyway, the Gay Pride parade went down on May 19, and although Latifah performed, she did not issue any kind of “I’m gay” statement. I’m actually surprised that Entertainment Weekly asked Latifah the question during an interview, but I suspect that the Queen had arranged it just so:
Queen Latifah wants to be clear: Despite speculation online, her performance at Long Beach’s Lesbian & Gay Pride event on May 19 was not a signal that she was coming out as a lesbian. “That definitely wasn’t the case,” she tells EW. “I’ve never dealt with the question of my personal life in public. It’s just not gonna happen.”
That said, the 42-year old was thrilled to participate in the event and even recalled an earlier performance for gay audiences. “To me, doing a gay pride show is one of the most fun things,” she says. “My first show that paid more than $10,000 was in a gay club on New Year’s Eve in San Francisco. Tupac happened to be in town, so he came to kick it with me. This was the early ’90s. And the boys were like, ‘Take your shirt off, Tupac!’ He wasn’t doing that. But we had a blast in there.”
Latifah — who’s starring in an upcoming remake of Steel Magnolias for Lifetime — also reiterated her support for her gay fans. “I know that the most important thing and the only thing I have to give is love. When people are going through hatred and bullying, the biggest thing to fight that is love,” she says. “So that’s all I encouraged my audience to do that night: to share their light and share their love. Period.”
Love the Tupac story. As for Latifah’s statement – I can get behind that. I’m fine with celebrities keeping the personal lives private, just so long as they aren’t outright denying or lying to us. Latifah isn’t out there, pretending to be dating a some Rent-A-Dong. She’s not giving effusive interviews about how much she loves dudes. She’s just not commenting on her personal life at all, the end. Which is fine. Admirable, even.
Archive Bauer-Griffin photo, other photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News and WENN.
The thing about this that bothers me is… The Steel Magnolia remake by lifetime! NOOOOOOOOOOO just don’t do it. STOP.
+1
I know!! It was first thing that jumped out at me. Why does Lifetime need to screw up another decent movie? They’ll probably slide MeAnn Rimes into Julia Robert’s part, and Susan Lucci into Olympia Dukakis’ part. Geez……
LMAO!
I never ever ever watch Lifetime. I will watch Spike before Lifetime. No one I know watches Lifetime. Who are these women that Lifetime is for?
No! Stop raping my childhood, Lifetime!
I find her beautiful and really cool, anywho, I think Latifah is one of the FEW celebrities who really des NOT share, profit, or capitalize on sharing with the public details her personal life and she deserves to have that privacy respected. It is not like she is wearing masks or cloaks while she is out with this women, if it was a straight woman no one would care. I just think we need to get to a point where we do NOT *care* about people #comingout. Wth does that really mean anyway? Long story short, let the Queen have her privacy.
Absolutely agree! It’s got nothing to do with anybody else! The only time it should bother somebody is if *name* is hitting on them. Other than that NO!
Agreed.
Agree. I don’t know why homosexuals people are expected to give details of every aspect of their lives but heterosexuals can just live their lives.
Except Aniston and Simpson. They shove their SOs down our throats. Simpson even give us the gory details.
Agreed.
Agree 100%. Nobody’s business – and what difference does it make anyway?
I completely agree too.
I really respect her for making the decision to keep her life private, and offering no apologies for that choice.
I don’t know about a Steel Magnolias remake, but I always enjoy her work in films.
I am so with her. It is nobody’s business. I just hope that she is happy.
I like when celebrities don’t lie, as well. You don’t have to put your business out there for all the world and I completely understand that, but when you lie, you lose credibility. Admirable, indeed.
She has always seemed like a class act to me.
Queen comports herself with class and style. I like that about her. I’m a fan of hers (have been for 20+ years now) and I really appreciate that she’s not all “Clan of the Crackbear-in-my-face” with what (or who) she does on her own time.
She’s beautiful, funny, and I just want her to continue being her.
She looks gorgeous in the brown dress.
I love her, and she’s right, it’s none of our business. I only object when they INSIST on telling us every intimate detail or pretending they are straight when they aren’t.
Or pulling an Anne Heche and pretending their gay when they’re not to further their career.
Love me some Queen
Now this is what you call a classy, intelligent lady.
This ^^^^^^
All haill the Queen!!!
I had no idea she was gay which in my opinion is awesome. More celebrities could learn from her about keeping some of their private lives private. Like Kaiser said she didn’t have a “beard” to hide who she was but she didn’t make any statements or try and capitalize on it. It’s very cool of her.
I love the Queen. That is all.
I want to hear more about this Crackbear Clan.
That brown dress is doing her all of the favours, very flattering. I think Christina Hendricks would do well to be taken under the sartorial wing of Queen or Octavia Spencer. Now there’s a lady who knows how to do it–dresses, makeup, acessories, shoes–she just demolished those red carpets
Jo ‘Mama”‘ – Clan of the Crackbear = the Lohan family. 😀
That dress is AWESOME on her, and I’m liking that bathing suit and sarong, too. She always knows how to dress for her body-type. She is just so gorgeous! Her hair, her face, her eyes, her attitude! Total girl-crush here.
She is not pretending to be someone else, she is not hiding her own sexuality (John Travolta can you hear me??) she wants her private life to be private, and that’s ok.
I disagree. Hell Stevie Wonder can see she is gay. As a lesbian myself, I was in denial for the longest time until I came out in my early 20’s. The Queen should use her celebrity status to help a lot of people who are confused or embarrassed about their sexualty. When my friends or family members ask me about my sexuality, I don’t respond by saying it’s no one’s business but my own! Raven Symone, Queen Latifah, Kevin Spacey, Anderson Cooper! It’s the same with them as well!,,
We are not her friends or family.Her job is to entertain her fans
I don’t think she needs to say anything, but I am bothered by her response. Why couldn’t she have just said, “my personal life is personal…next question” why the long winded, cloak and dagger response?
PS: she’s a lesbian and this is not her first pride event. Her and McLyte used too throw
Didn’t let me finish posting. No idea why.
Anywhoo, Queen Latifah & McLyte used to throw parties during pride week in NYC in the 90’s. My sister knew Latifah’s crowd personally, and I attended MvLyte’s parties for years. I won’t tell you what famous women I saw there, but there were quite a few hugged up eith their girl friends…
Hmm. I think this is a touchy subject, but I will have to disagree. Just because she is a lesbian does not mean she “owes” the gay-community anything. It is not her obligation to come out and be an inspiration for other people who are in the closet. Her responsibility is her own life, nobody elses. Her sexuality and who she chooses to sleep with is also her own private matter, not ours. If she chooses to come out and help other people, fine; but if not, that is also okay.
Also, it’s not like she is lying and having beards; She is actually an open lesbian, she just chooses not to talk about it. I would think that alone in itself is an inspiration.
But your friends and family members are part of your personal life. I’m sure Queen Latifah, Anderson Cooper et. al. are very open about their sexual orientation with their friends and family. Just because they aren’t announcing it to the world doesn’t mean they’re in the closet. They just don’t want their careers to mix with their personal lives. Plenty of straight celebs feel the same way.
Always loved her! She’s beautiful and classy. Kudos to her for keeping her private life private.
^THIS
I get what you’re saying but there are plenty of advocates celebrity or non that are a support base for those kinds of situations.
The thing that gets to me, is that because of “obvious” celebs who are gay, now every male or female you don’t see “canoodling”, or just don’t see them with someone of the opposite sex, it must mean they’re gay! It bugs me to no end .
+1
Who cares!!! But remaking STEEL MAGNOLIAS???? How beyond stupid. Get new ideas hollywood!!!!! Lame.
I don’t find it cool or admirabe. I’m disapointed in her. She made it sound like she was coming out when she was amongst our people but was quick to quash it to the mainstream media shortly thereafter.