On Saturday, Queen Latifah took the stage at Long Beach Pride, the first time the rapper-actress has performed at an LGBT event. Although there was no “Yup, I’m gay” moment, La gave a little T to the crowd.
Saying she’d “been waiting a long time to do this,” the Queen said she was proud to be among her people.
And welcome to the Matt Bomer school of coming out: An unspecific semi-acknowledgement at a public event where straight and gay celebrities often take the stage.
It’s the best of both worlds! In-the-know gays will think you’ve stage a big coming out and unsuspecting soccer moms won’t hear a thing about it. Movie career (or cosmetics contract) secured.
How about we take this to the next level?
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John
Lame.
Cam
It’s weird how terrified people are.
She’s older, she has plenty of money in the bank and yet still is hesitant. It would be nice if Hollywood folks would take a look at pretty much every body else who comes out at work/home/to friends and realizes that they aren’t going to die.
Still, at least she took a step.
KV
Why are you queens such downers? No one has an obligation to publicly declare their sexuality to the world. For those that do, that’s great for them. For folks that opt to be more private, that’s their right too. Bitter is such an ugly color!
Shannon1981
Meh. Let her do what she wants. Better than nothing. I don’t think coming out would hurt her at this point- after all, she’s been famous and has a solid career, fanbase, contracts,et al. There’s no reason not to. However, I am sure nobody wants to lose fans, and, let’s face it, whether she can afford to lose those fans or not, she would lose some. Still disappointed, though.
ScaryRussianHeather
How ~unexpected. No problem, Covergirl, let the younger generation without your years of success risk THEIR careers and personal satisfaction. We know you have lawsuits to defend and boo hoo.
Meanwhile, Adam Lambert is being targeted by Newsbusters dot org for his interview with NPR Sunday because the interviewer decided to focus on his sexuality and his song Outlaws of Love. Even though Adam complains to the interviewer that it’s difficult to promote music when all the interviews focus on is music lol.
They mock him headlining “Adam Lambert’s version of hell”. And have some stupid non sequitur about the interview suggesting that “reading the bible is wrong” even though the bible never came up in the conversation. I guess it was the lyric “they say we rot in hell” that got the author going. But READING being WRONG is nothing more than a false equivalence.
The hit piece is being retweeted and reblogged all over.
Seems to me THAT deserves a Queerty blog post and rebuttal. Considering the possible #1 album Trespassing is teetering on the edge of history with the Billboard 200 numbers being released tomorrow. Thankfully, it has great reviews and tweetstalking shows a higher ratio of positive new and young listeners becoming fans to homophobic haters that tweet.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2012/05/22/npr-touts-adam-lamberts-version-hell
ScaryRussianHeather
* WHOOPS: TYPO should be “when all the interviewers focus on is sexuality”.
Spike
It was a job. LB Pride hired her to perform at the main stage, she showed up, she performed. Queerty, why all the expectation that she come out just cuz it’s a gay event?
Shannon1981
@ScaryRussianHeather: Why are you in an article about Queen Latifah and Long Beach Pride talking about something completely unrelated?
Red Assault
Why is it people like her again?
Other than our of love fat black women, it’s not like she’s really that good at anything. She can act, kind of, sing a bit… Her rapping is abysmal.
MikeE
@KV: No, if Queen Latifah wants to keep her sexuality “private” she has absolutely every right to do so.
On the other hand, isn’t headlining a performance at a gay PRIDE event sort of a public thing? it’s a place where the LGBT community COME OUT and show PRIDE in being who they are.
If QL wants to keep her private life private, then she shouldn’t do gigs at VERY un-private affairs.
It’s like someone saying they are apolitical and refusing to declare a political allegiance, yet playing the Democratic convention, or doing a fund raiser for a Republican campaign.
There are SOME things you just can’t do and insist on being considered “impartial”.
Either come out and SAY you’re gay, or at least have the courtesy to say “I’m a straight ally”.
ScaryRussianHeather
@Shannon1981:
1) If you can’t see that a younger generation singer [the FIRST], beginning his career out, being endlessly targeted for his sexuality but fearless… is not a juxtaposition to a seasoned popular older generation singer/entertainer who is perceived to be afraid or unwilling to possibly risk HER career, especially on the exact same weekend of Longbeach Pride when he was being targeted by Newsbusters….I can’t help you.
2) Because Queerty doesn’t have another daily thread for miscellaneous posts alerting them to new relevant media issues impacting the LGBT community.
David Ehrenstein
@KV: Yes it’s your “right” to be a coward. Let’s celebrate cowardice!
Shannon1981
@ScaryRussianHeather: They ask that you email [email protected] rather than derailing threads.
I am a long time Adam Lambert fan, I just think your turning this thread into one about him is unnecessary. I never said whether I agree or disagree. I don’t care to discuss it, because I find your tone here unnecessarily aggressive in response to a simple question.
Ty
@ScaryRussianHeather:
What the hell does that have to do with Queen Latifah? Considering the disparaging remarks you made about Jay Brannan and Scissor Sisters (who like Adam are young and out, but don’t appeal to straight women and don’t have his popularity), its obvious you are not part of the community but just a Glambert.
Hate to break it to ya, but I know to straight people, Adam and Glee are the alpha and omega for gays in the media, but it doesn’t even scratch the surface to those of us who actually are gay.
Ty
Honestly, a straight person making every thread about Adam and slamming everyone else would be like a white person going into a predominantly African American website and whining whenever Beyonce isn’t discussed in a thread, because hey, Beyonce should be discussed every five minutes on an AA forum, right? :::sarcasm on:::
AEH
Yep. Her wiki’s categories have been updated to include “LGBT musicians from United States, Lesbian actors, and Lesbian musicians.” So I guess it really is official?
Cam
@Shannon1981:
Pretty much what I was thinking. Meh, would have been nice if…..
Basch
This is bull. She should have just officially said it. Her beating around the bush is showing that she is still afraid to officially say it, which is showing LGBT youth that there may be reasons in your life to be afraid to come out yourself. Everyone knows you’re a dyke, just say it so people won’t be embarrassed for you.
KV
@David Ehrenstein: Gay men judging other people? How silly! Just like you think everyone is obligated to publicize their sexual orientation, some people think you should be straight. You’re in no position to judge others buddy.
KV
@MikeE: Why don’t we request this same ridiculous protocol for pride performances from female performers we automatically assume to be heterosexual? And how exactly should that intro go? “First of all I just want to let you guys know I am a heterosexual female, but I have no problem with you queens, so I will be performing for you tonight.” Hmmm…
Carrie
Matt Bomer? Have you slept away the last days?
EW: You all show a lot of skin in this movie. What did your significant others think of that?
Bomer: Simon was totally cool with it. He’s totally supportive of me as an artist. He’s like, “Go do your thing and let me know how it goes when you get home.”
Seriously, how much more explicit do you need it?
ask Jesus to help you
Jesus created a set number of angels. all angels are male. 1/3 of all angels rebelled against Jesus. Jesus turned the rebels into spiritual? darkness (aka demons) and expelled them from heaven down to earth. demons disguise themselves as ghosts, aliens in ufos, greys, spirit guides, ascended masters, pagan gods and goddesses, channeled entities, dead relatives during seances, ouija board movers, psychic’s sources, astrologer’s helpers, automatic writing spirits, & angels of light. demons dress in fake human skin and fly in ufo ships. demons will invite people to be healed in their ufo ships. whoever goes in to be healed by demons, comes out a spiritual zombie. demons have 4 ufo bases: moon, mountain kailas in tibet, mariana trench in pacific ocean, and lake baikal in russia. suicide, blasphemy, worship of antichrist (pale jew with red eyes, who moves like? superman? and makes fire come down from the sky),? receiving mark of the beast (rfid chip-small grey world passport-electronic tattoo-666 tattoo by lasers), and going into ufo ship (aliens=ghosts=demons) lead to hell.when people stretch hands to receive small grey world passport,a green 666? tattoo will be given by lasers on forehead/wrist area.rfid chip and electronic tattoo are used to track? people to laser them.
Jeff
@ask Jesus to help you: I think you need more than Jesus to help you. Lots and lots of meds and maybe a nice long stay at a place where they have flowers and all the nice people in white coats talk very softly, perhaps?