[on
The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2003) after the passage of
Proposition 8, which took away the right to gay marriage in California]
Here in California, the one that's important to me is Prop 8. What
broke my heart, you know--I'm watching the news, and there were, you
know, like, a lot of the black churches got together, and they were
rallying, you know, they were FOR Prop 8; I'm like, come on--it's
discrimination! I mean, discrimination is discrimination. And of all
people, black people should know discrimination and you're going to
vote and get discrimination in the Constitution? I mean, that's . . . I
know African-Americans, they get upset. They're like, "Black and gay,
that's totally different things. We had it hard." And I'm like, "Yeah,
I get it. I'm black. I know. I get it". You know. But there's things
that gay people have to go through that black people didn't have to go
through. I never had to come out black. Never had to sit my family down
and tell them about my blackness. Have a little talk with my employer,
let him know about my "black lifestyle". Mom, dad, I gotta tell you
something. Hope you still love me. I'm black. You know, and my mother:
"Not black, Lord! Anything but black, Jesus! Anything but black! What
did I do, what did I do? It was
Soul Train (1971), wasn't it?
I shouldn't have let you watch 'Soul Train'." "No, ma, that's just
me--I mean, I just feel like I was born black". "No, you weren't born
black. The bible says Adam and Eve; it doesn't say Adam and
Mary J. Blige".
