Queen Latifah is denying that she came out during a recent appearance at the Long Beach lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Pride festival.
The rapper-actress-singer has long faced rumors that she is a lesbian and the fact that the Southern California event marked her first performance at a Pride festival had convinced excited fans that she was finally going to confirm what so many have speculated about for years.
According to the Advocate, while on stage on May 19, Latifah reportedly referred to the crowd as “her people” and asked “Are you feeling all the unity?” causing some to believe that she had indeed come out.
However, Latifah tells Entertainment Weekly “that definitely wasn’t the case,” and added, “I’ve never dealt with the question of my personal life in public. It’s just not gonna happen.”
This isn’t the first time that the entertainer has gone on record as refusing to discuss her sexuality. In a 2008 New York Times interview she said, “I don’t have a problem discussing the topic of somebody being gay, but I do have a problem discussing my personal life… I don’t care if people think I’m gay or not. Assume whatever you want. You do it anyway.”
While Latifah wasn’t up for discussing her personal life, she was more than happy to show more support for the LGBT community. She told Entertainment Weekly, “To me, doing a gay pride show is one of the most fun things. My first show that paid more than $10,000 was in a gay club on New Year’s Eve in San Francisco.” She added, “When people are going through hatred and bullying, the biggest thing to fight that is love… So that’s all I encouraged my audience to do that night: to share their light and share their love. Period.”
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