Queen Latifah proud to be among 'her people' at gay pride event

Queen Latifah didn't officially come out of the closet this weekend, but when she appeared at the 20th Annual Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Festival her message was clear...

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

Hip-hop icon Queen Latifah didn’t officially come out of the closet this weekend, but when she appeared at the 20th Annual Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Festival her message was clear: the LGBT community deserves our love and respect. Performing some of her greatest hits, Latifah was a huge hit with the crowd. EurWeb reports:

Queen Latifah arrived with her royal court to an amped and enthusiastic crowd of subjects summoned to celebrate the 29th Annual Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Festival on Saturday, May 19.

The annual event held in Long Beach, California boasts of drawing approximately 100,000 attendees each year, making it the 2nd largest Pride festival in California and 4th largest in the nation. With such star power like Queen Latifah embracing this year’s event and taking the stage, attendance was presumably higher because everybody loves to see and hear a queen. And there was only one way for Her Highness to make her grand entrance, and that was upon the wings of rap hits like “U.N.I.T.Y.” and “Ladies First.”

Similar to the title of her 2003 film Bring The House Down, Queen Latifah came hyped, energized and ready to do just that. She “brought it” in more ways than one, bridging songs with inspiring and encouraging words by telling the crowd to “let their inner light shine in the world” and “to conquer hate with love.”

It wasn’t just her Covergirl glow that radiated from the main stage and mesmerized festival goers; it was the light of her transparency emanating from within. The moment she uttered, “I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time,” the crowd knew she was prepared to reflect all sides of herself throughout her musical performance.

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