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More than 1,000 protesters turned up in Las Vegas Saturday for the city's Join the Impact demonstration for LGBT equality, but one speaker at the Sin City rally took the crowd by surprise -- comedian Wanda Sykes, who chose the occasion to tell the crowd that she is gay. "People shouldn't have to talk about their sexual orientation," Sykes said, "but with the legislation that they passed, I can't sit by and just watch."
More than 1,000 protesters turned up in Las Vegas Saturday for the city's Join the Impact demonstration for LGBT equality, but one speaker at the Sin City rally took the crowd by surprise -- comedian Wanda Sykes, who chose the occasion to tell the crowd that she is gay.
According to Steve Friess, a local journalist and the blogger behind Vegas Happens Here, the 44-year-old star of CBS's The New Adventures of Old Christine told the crowd how excited she was to see Barack Obama elected president, but she was "crushed" to see the passage of California's Proposition 8, which banned civil same-sex marriage in the state.
"We took a huge leap forward and then got dragged 12 feet back," Friess reported Sykes as saying. "I felt like I was being attacked, personally attacked, our community was attacked. I got married October 25. I don't really talk about my sexual orientation, I felt like I was living my life, I wasn't in the closet, but I was just living my life. Everybody who knows me personally, they know I'm gay. And that's the way people should be able to live our lives, really. We shouldn't have to be standing out here demanding something we automatically should have as citizens of this country."
Sykes said Prop. 8 supporters "pissed off the wrong group of people. They have galvanized a community. We are so together now and we all want the same thing and we shouldn't have to settle for less. Instead of having gay marriage in California, no, we're gonna have gay marriage across the country. When my wife and I leave California, I want to have my marriage also recognized in Nevada, in Arizona, all the way to New York. I'm proud to be a woman, I'm proud to be a black woman, and I'm proud to be gay."
Sykes was not a scheduled speaker among the local activists and dignitaries who were expected to say a few words in front of the city's LGBT community center.
"It seemed like it was unplanned," Friess said, noting Sykes had been performing at the nearby Planet Hollywood casino. "She just sort of was suddenly in the crowd."
Friess, who had interviewed Sykes a few weeks ago and had no idea she was a lesbian, followed up for an impromptu interview after she was done speaking.
"People shouldn't have to talk about their sexual orientation," Sykes told Friess. "We shouldn't have to do it, but with the legislation that they passed, I can't sit by and just watch. I just can't do it."
Sykes also told Friess that she felt the exit polls showing 70% of African American voters in California voted for Proposition 8 were wrong. "Please stop spreading that 70% of African-Americans voted yes on Prop. 8 because it's just not true," Sykes said.
A recording of Sykes's speech and interview are available on Friess's website. (Christopher Lisotta and Corey Scholibo, The Advocate)
