Comedian Wanda Sykes Comes Out of the Closet

Zap2It.com | November 17, 2008

Wanda Sykes, 'The New Adventures of Old Christine'

'The New Adventures of Old Christine' actress is 'proud to be gay'

Wanda Sykes is used to getting laughs in her job, but she wasn't making light of being gay over the weekend.

The comedian came out of the closet in Las Vegas on Saturday (Nov. 15) at a rally to protest a ban on gay marriage.

"I'm proud to be a black woman, and I'm proud to be gay," she told the crowd.

The rally was to protest the passage of Proposition 8, which eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry. In May, the California Supreme Court had voted to strike down the state's ban on gay marriage, which led to numerous gay weddings in the past few months, including those for celebrities Ellen DeGeneres to Portia de Rossi, George Takei to his longtime partner Brad Altman, and Sykes herself on Oct. 25.

With the November presidential election, however, a ballot initiative to reinstate the ban passed with 52 percent of the vote. Protests have been held daily in various cities around California since then, with a nationwide rally held this past Saturday.

"We took a huge leap forward [in electing Barack Obama] and then got dragged about 12 steps back. Our community was attacked," said Sykes, 44. "If we had equal rights, we shouldn't have to be standing out here demanding something that we automatically should have as citizens of this country. I said, 'You know what, now I gotta get in your face.' And that's what we have to do now. They have pissed off the wrong group of people."

Sykes plays Barb on CBS' "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and last appeared on the big screen in"Evan Almighty."