Queen Latifah denies that she came out of the closet at the 29th Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Festival, despite speculation.
The 42-year-old rapper and actress has never revealed her sexuality publically but has been rumored to have been in a relationship with a woman in the past. She performed at the May 19 event in Long Beach, California, before some 10,000 people. Organizers said it was her first such appearance at a Pride celebration this size.
Several news outlets, including The Washington Post, quoted her as calling the crowd “my people,” raising speculation that she had come out of the closet.
“That definitely wasn’t the case,” she told Entertainment Weekly recently. “I’ve never dealt with the question of my personal life in public. It’s just not gonna happen.”
“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. Tupac happened to be in town, so he came to kick it with me,” she added, referring to the slain rapper who recently made an appearance as a hologram at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. “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.”
Queen Latifah is known for movies such as “Hairspray,” “Chicago” and “Bringing Down The House” and is also set to appear in Lifetime Television’s upcoming remake of the big-screen film “Steel Magnolias,” along with “The Cosby Show” star Phylicia Rashad and her daughter Condola, who will play Julia Robert’s old role of Shelby. Queen Latifah will play her mother.
In January, it was announced the she is set to host her own syndicated daytime talk show, which is being co-produced by Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith.