Wanda Sykes Comes Out at Prop 8 Rally

Comedian and actress Wanda Sykes officially came out this weekend, announcing to the estimated crowd of 1,000 gathered in Las Vegas at one of the many rallies for gay rights taking place around the country on Saturday that she’s gay, and that she legally married her wife in California on Oct. 25.

Sykes (who divorced her husband of seven years in 1998), has spoken out about gay rights issues many times in the past, recently participated in a campaign to fight anti-gay slurs, and has openly referred to her wife in some of her stand-up routines.

But she has always declined to specifically discuss her sexual orientation publicly — until now.

“I don’t really talk about my sexual orientation," she told the crowd at the Las Vegas GLBT Community Center. "I didn’t feel like I had to. I was just living my life, not necessarily in the closet, but I was living my life."

"Everybody that knows me personally, they know I’m gay. But that’s the way people should be able to live their lives.”

But the passage of Proposition 8, she told them, spurred her decision to officially come out. “ We took a huge leap forward and then got dragged 12 feet back. I felt like I was being attacked, personally attacked — our community was attacked."

“Now, I gotta get in their face," she continued. "I’m proud to be a woman. I’m proud to be a black woman, and I’m proud to be gay.”