Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Katharine Hepburn could all come back from the dead to do battle on Oscar night, and they still might have trouble ripping that gold statuette from Mo'Nique's clutches. Her searing performance as a mentally ill mother in Lee Daniels’s six-time Oscar nominated film Precious is about as close as it gets to a sure thing on Oscar night.

With Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award wins already under her belt, things couldn't get much better for Mo’, who is also making headlines as the host of The Mo’Nique Show. Her BET talk show makes her only the second black woman to venture into late night (Whoopi Goldberg did it first, and Wanda Sykes started a few weeks later).

A lifelong supporter of gay causes and AIDS awareness, the sassy woman who once shouted “skinny bitches are evil" from the mountaintops found time to chat it up with Advocate.com about Precious, her talk show, and homophobia in the church — with a prophecy that God has plans to smack the shit out of some folks!



Advocate.com: Back in April of 2009 I attended a BET event, which is where The Mo'nique Show was first announced. While talking to the audience, which was a bit of a conservative crowd, you mentioned how your show is for everyone and even said the gay community. Some people only support gay audiences in front of gay audiences.
Mo'Nique: [Laughs] That’s funny — yes!

Why is it important for you to be inclusive?
Because love conquers all. Who you choose to live your life with — that’s not my concern, nor is it my business. I think we should just love each other as human beings. We get caught up in the foolishness. I believe if we would just start loving each other as human beings, we would be in a much better position.

Recently on your talk show you had R&B singer Miki Howard as a guest. Both of you said you grew up with gay people in church and there wasn’t anything wrong with it. That was so refreshing to hear. Could you elaborate on your experiences with gays in the church?
I actually was not a person that grew up in church — that’s what Miki was saying and I was agreeing. Now, I know a lot of folks that go to church and are gay. I tell them, “God don’t make no mistakes, baby, and we keep using it when it’s convenient.” If we are all made in his image, there are no mistakes. I think it’s absolute foolishness, just in my humble opinion, when people make statements like, “It’s blasphemy and you’re going to hell!” Really? And I’m a child of God — do you think God set me up? I’ve never bought in to it. With gays and church, I think there are so many of our brothers and sisters that’s in pain because they go to a place to receive nurturing, the love of God, and you start hearing that you’re going to hell because of who you were made to be. I just don’t buy that!