I was at Gay Pride 2012 in Long Beach, CA and Queen Latifah performed. It absolutely sounded like she made it official ”came out” despite Latifah recanting her words in later interviews. Is Latifah embarrassed about her sexuality? 

Queen Latifah stepped on the stage telling the crowd that she had been “wanting to do this for a long time”, and later proclaiming that she was happy to be performing for “her people“. Queen Latifah came hyped, energized and she “brought it” in more ways than one. Bridging songs with inspiring and encouraging words by telling the crowd to “let their inner light shine in the world” and “to conquer hate with love”.

The moment she uttered, “I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time,” the crowd knew she was prepared to reflect all sides of herself throughout her musical performance.

She was as free as she wanted to be and as honest as she needed to be, from bumping and grinding onstage to acknowledging that she was proud to be among “her people” to the predominantly LGBT crowd.

This being her first musical appearance at the Gay Pride Festival I felt was a testament that Queen Latifah not only wants to be true to her loyal fans, “her people” and  that she is willing to stand up and be herself, perhaps gaining even deeper respect and appreciation from her LGBT supporters and allies.

In my opinion, for a highly respected African American celebrity to display that kind of courage was simply inspiring to many but then to later retract her words sure does fuel me with anger!

What are your thoughts?