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“I got married on Oct. 25,” Sykes told the crowd holding signs and ch“anting for her. My wife is here.”
While Sykes has been spotted out and about in lesbian clubs throughout West Hollywood for years and has always championed gay rights in her act and in interviews, she’s never quite said she was gay. Even as recently as Ellen Degeneres’ Halloween show, Sykes passionately and humorously argued for gay marriage rights without saying the words that she was gay.
“I was just living my life,” Sykes told the Vegas crowd. “Everyone that knows me – they know I’m gay.” She added that the people who voted “Yes on 8,” pissed her off.
For Sykes, Election Day was filled with unprecedented highs and lows. “On Tuesday Nov. 4, at 8:15, it was the happiest moment of my life….we elected Barack Obama,” Sykes said. “About 11 o’clock I was crushed. We took a huge leap forward and we were dragged about 12 steps back. I felt like I was being attacked. Our community is being attacked.”
Sykes mentioned the triumvirate of same-sex rights that were stripped on Election Day including Prop. 8’s passing, marriage in Florida being quashed and Arkansas stripping adoption rights from gay couples.
“They pissed me off,” Sykes said of the people who voted to take away gay and lesbian rights. “You know what? Now I got to get in your face. They pissed off the wrong group of people,” she said, adding that the community is galvanized and will not go away.
Sykes cautioned that those who sought and seek to keep gays and lesbians stripped of their rights had better watch out because not only will the community fight to maintain marriage rights in California but now the community should battle for federal marriage rights.
“When my wife and I leave California I want to have my marriage recognized in Nevada, Arizona, all the way to New York,” Sykes said to the crowd, which responded with whoops and hollers. “What’s wrong with loving each other?”
The spitfire funny woman also debunked the gay is a choice theory in her four-minute plus speech. She said being gay is not a choice. “That’s like telling me I chose to be a woman or I chose to be black,” Sykes said. “Are people straight because they chose not to be gay?”
Topping off her pointed and moving speech Sykes said. “I am proud to be a woman. I’m proud to be a black woman and I’m proud to be gay. Now let’s go get our damned civil rights!”
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
