Queen Latifah Says She Did Not Come Out During Pride Concert

Queen Latifah denies speculation she came out during a May 19 concert at Long Beach Pride and says she will never discuss her personal life in public, during an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

While performing at the Southern California city's pride festival, Latifah referred to the enthusiastic crowd as "her people," which some websites interpreted as the talented 42-year-old entertainer coming out as lesbian. "That definitely wasn't the case," she says. "I've never dealt with the question of my personal life in public. It's just not gonna happen."

Latifah tells EW that she enjoyed performing for the LGBT audience. "To me, doing a gay pride show is one of the most fun things," she says. "My first show that paid more than $10,000 was in a gay club on New Year's Eve in San Francisco. Tupac happened to be in town, so he came to kick it with me. This was the early '90s. And the boys were like, 'Take your shirt off, Tupac!' He wasn't doing that. But we had a blast in there."

The singer-actress also acknowledges the reciprocal love between her and her LGBT fan base. "I know that the most important thing and the only thing I have to give is love," she says. "When people are going through hatred and bullying, the biggest thing to fight that is love. So that's all I encouraged my audience to do that night: to share their light and share their love. Period."