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Wanda Sykes receives Hope of Los Angeles Award, talks about homophobia, racism on “Piers Morgan Tonight”

Comic and actress Wanda Sykes was honored today in Los Angeles with the Hope of Los Angeles Award, presented to her by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as part of the City’s first Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Heritage Month celebration. The theme of the celebration was “LGBT LA: Paving the Way Toward Equality,” and Sykes was honored along with two other LGBT leaders, Reverend Troy Perry (the Spirit of Los Angeles Award) and media strategist Chad Griffin (the Dream of Los Angeles Award). Sykes later tweeted these photos from the event: Sykes also appeared last night on the CNN show Piers Morgan Tonight, and was asked by the host about coming out publicly at an anti-Prop 8 rally in Las Vegas in 2008 and the downside, if any, to having done so.

As part of her answer, Sykes mentioned that she thought it was more difficult to be gay than black. When Morgan asked her if “really” meant it, she explained, “To a certain point, yes. I believe that. I’m not talking about the history of African-Americans. I’m talking about at this point right now” and mentioned anti-gay legislation as one of the reasons why she believes this to be true.

Sykes added, “I don’t know of organizations and groups like Focus on the Family and such anti-gay organizations who are putting so much money, millions and millions of dollars, into stopping me from being black or telling me that I can’t exercise my blackness. There’s no equality for LGBT people.”

Watch a clip from the show below: Moran also asked Sykes to weigh in on “Weiner-gate,” the scandal surrounding a lewd photo sent from the Twitter account of New York Rep. Anthony Weiner. Morgan asked Sykes what she thought of Weiner’s claim that he “didn’t recognize himself” in the scandalous photo. She replied, “Pictures add 10 pounds.” Watch the video clip of their conversation about the Weiner scandal here.

What do you think of Syke’s comments about today’s political climate for LGBT people?

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