TV

On Queen Latifah and coming out

Tonight on HBO, Queen Latifah stars as the legendary blues singer Bessie Smith in the Dee Rees-directed biopic Bessie. The film delves into Bessie’s relationships with both men and women, giving Queen romantic and sexual scenes with co-star Tika Sumpter, who plays Bessie’s lover, Lucille.

While speculation about Queen Latifah’s sexuality is nothing new and is now treated more as an open secret (she is often out in public holding hands and kissing her partner, Eboni Nichols), it appears that being part of such a queer film about authenticity and embracing who you are is not the platform the artist/actress is using to come out. In interviews leading up to Bessie, many journalists have tried to ask her to speak to Bessie’s freedom and comfort level with living a sexually fluid life, but it becomes clear during these conversations that Queen Latifah is not ready to relate them to her own.

One interview that struck me as particularly awkward was earlier this week on Good Morning America, where out host Robin Roberts brings up Bessie’s having affairs with men and women.

“For me,” Queen said, “I couldn’t think about anything else. I couldn’t think about coming off of two weeks before that being Queen Latifah, the talk show host. I couldn’t think about being the partner of Flavor Unit Entertainment or just being my mom’s daughter or my friend… I couldn’t think about anything else and I couldn’t have any fear in playing this character because she really deserves to somebody play her with some kind of fearlessness.”

Robin Roberts, who came out publicly last year, is one of few out black women in the public eye. As Wanda Sykes once joked, “…being an African-American celebrity who’s out, it was like they started treating me like a unicorn. We’ve never seen one of you before! It’s like me and RuPaul. I guess that’s it.” Of course there are also athletes like Brittney Griner and Seimone Augustus, rapper Angel Haze, writers like Alice Walker and actress Raven-Symone, but there is still a lacking of role models for women of color when it comes to mainstream media and entertainment. Queen Latifah is one of the most successful and well-recognized black women in America, coming off of her own talk show, producing films with her aforementioned production company, starring in major films, releasing albums and lending her face to brands like Cover Girl. The kind of influence she could wield if she did come out would be massive.

So why doesn’t she?

Perhaps we can look to Bessie for the answer. Although Bessie Smith was out to her close friends and family, her sexuality was likely not discussed or acknowledged as bisexual by audiences. In her heyday (the 1920s and ’30s), homosexuality might have been accepted in bohemian circuits, but not necessarily a topic of polite conversation, at least not in any kind of public forum. Bessie married a man and was, for all intents and purposes, straight to those who paid to see her sing. Even if she joked or sang about women on stage, it was safely part of an act, much like Queen Latifah’s role as Bessie or in the 1997 film Set It Off, where she played a butch bank robber named Cleo. Set it Off is some of of Queen’s best work, both a critical and box office success that also garnered her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Female.

In a 1996 interview, Queen (then 26) spoke about having some anxiety about the role, which required kissing another woman on screen.

“There was some anxiety when I found out that I had to kiss a girl. I can’t lie. I’m already Queen Latifah. I’m not just some actress off the street. But after getting over that, and releasing that anxiety, I went for it,” she said. “God blessed me with this role. So I talked to him about it. I said, `I think I can really show my stuff in this movie, but if you don’t want me to do it, don’t give it to me.’ But he gave it to me. So I knew I had to do it, and I knew I had to give it 150 percent.”

She also praised Cleo, though for not being “confused about who she was.”

“She was gay, gay, gay-not bisexual,” Queen said. “She’s very specific about what she wants. She digs her girlfriend and she has her homegirls. They’re her best buddies. And that’s her life. It’s all very simple to her.”

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the interview is when she is asked about Ellen’s possible coming out on her show, which happened months later.

“All this talk about whether or not Ellen DeGeneres is going to come out of the closet (on TV’s Ellen) is so silly, ” Queen said. “She shouldn’t live behind other people’s ideas. The world will never change like that.”

Nineteen years later, it seems Queen feels the same way. Despite the progress that has been made from Ellen and other public figures coming out, she is not looking to talk about her personal life, although she does say she believes in equality and officiated a same-sex ceremony for hundreds of couples live on the Grammys in 2013. Perhaps, like Bessie Smith, Queen doesn’t care about the kind of benefits her coming out could afford anyone else. She’s more interested in preserving a career and peaceful private life behind closed (closet) doors.

In an interview with BET this week, Queen was asked if now, in 2015, people will be “less terrified” about seeing two black women kissing on screen.

“I can’t really say that, ‘cuz for me, I remember we had-we did a screening premiere here in New York for Set It Off and we invited the entire hip hop community,” Queen said. “Everybody was there and when [the lesbian] part came, everybody was like ‘Woah!’ Eruption in the audience. But people feel a type of way whey they see any kind of sexuality on screen, to me. I think it’s almost human nature. People are so fascinated by it. It shouldn’t even be a discussion but it is people are still curious and people still wonder how they feel about things. At the end of the day, I don’t really care if someone feels uncomfortable about it. It is what it is and it’s life, so you either deal with it or not. That’s your choice. It’s just part of who she is. I had to tell the story honestly.”

It is (and always will be) Queen Latifah’s decision on when she wants to talk about her relationship or sexual identity, but there will continue to be a curiosity about her as she takes on projects that seem to present the opportunity for her to really make change in the world. A woman who has been a trailblazer in hip hop, film and TV, Queen Latifah’s coming out would spawn the kind of conversations and acceptance that are still so sorely needed, especially for people of color. In a 2012 survey, 120,000 LGBT adults were African American, 3.4% more than another other part of the population. And yet there are so many more white gay, lesbian and bisexual role models than their black counterparts.

There’s so much more involved for someone like Queen Latifah, whose being successful is not the only consideration for her when it comes to being more open about her sexual orientation. Out lesbian activist and writer Irene Monroe wrote about black homophobia for the Huffington Post after Robin Roberts came out, detailing the intersectionality that black lesbians face.

“Challenges of class-of race and gender-are deeply entrenched obstacles to living an open life. Each coming out process is unique, yet African Americans face a path entwined with family, religion, racism and more. Robin Roberts should be congratulated, again, for her bravery. Let’s not let our growing marriage equality success blind us to the very real challenges many still find to living an open and honest life.”

Irene writes “we cannot, however, escape the cultural, personal, interpersonal, and institutional indoctrinations in which homophobia is constructed in our very makeup of being defined as black,” and as a white lesbian writing this piece, I acknowledge I will not ever know these constructs like Irene, Robin, Wanda, Queen or any black queer woman will. But I do see hear black lesbians who will talk about Queen Latifah as family but say they won’t be surprised if she never comes out. They understand her and, despite knowing the kind of good her coming out could do not only for them but for future generations, do not blame her. They can’t.

“People can say whatever they want,” Queen Latifah told The Daily Beast. “People will say things either way. Me not playing [Bessie] isn’t going to make a difference with that.”

Queen Latifah’s taking on roles like Set it Off‘s Cleo and Bessie Smith is sure to inspire the same kinds of conversations that her coming out would, but it also comes along with some questions, like “Why can she be comfortable making love to a woman on screen but not talking about loving her partner in real life?” Surely with the success she’s seen and the name she’s made for herself, as well as the empire that out lesbian Ellen DeGeneres has created since Queen mentioned her in that interview close to 20 years ago, she can’t be too concerned about what she has to lose, right? Maybe some day we’ll get an answer, but if we don’t, we’ll have to accept that she’s taking a page out of Bessie’s book, even if it’s a little outdated.

Bessie premieres on HBO tonight at 8pm.

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