HARDER TO BE GAY THAN BLACK’

American comedienne and actress Wanda Sykes has told CNN’s Piers Morgan that today it can be harder to be gay than black in the US because of organised bigotry against lesbians and gays.

The 47-year-old openly-lesbian star, known for her role in series such as The New Adventures of Old Christine, spoke on Morgan’s show about coming out and being black and gay.

When asked if she really believes that being gay can be harder than being black, Sykes replied: “To a certain point, yes. I’m not talking about the history of African-Americans. I’m talking about at this point right now.”

She added: “I don’t know of organisations and groups like Focus on the Family and such anti-gay organisations 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 or whatever. So it is.

“There’s no equality, there’s no equality for the LGBT community,” she said.

Sykes came out as lesbian in November 2008 during a rally against California’s Proposition 8 law that banned same-sex marriage in that state.

She told Morgan that she hadn’t intended to come out when speaking at the rally. “I kind of shocked myself. I was in the middle of it, and it was from anger.”

She added: “I felt liberated. The best thing is now – not that I was hiding before – there’s absolutely nothing to hide. I am what I am, this is it. Now there’s nothing I can’t say.”

Sykes has been married since 2008 to her female partner Alex, who gave birth to twins Olivia Lou and Lucas Claude in 2009.