Video of Wanda Sykes’ speech at a Prop 8 Rally in Las Vegas. She also says “Gay is not a choice.”

Tens of thousands of concerned people gathered at protests around the US on Saturday against Prop 8, which outlawed same sex marriage in California by defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Gay marriage was previously legalized in California in May after a ruling by their state supreme court. After Prop 8 was passed earlier this month, the only states in America to have legalized same sex marriage are Massachusetts and Connecticut. People are calling for a federal ruling that allows for gay marriage throughout the US and doesn’t leave it up to individual states to decide. Many liken marriage to a basic right that should be afforded to all.

Comedian Wanda Sykes came out as a proud lesbian at a rally in Las Vegas. She said that she married her same sex partner on October 25, but that she never really talked about it because she didn’t feel the need. She hasn’t exactly hidden her partner, and did mention her girlfriend when talking to Ellen on air this March.

“I thought, man we are moving in the right direction. And then at about 11 o’clock I was crushed. We took a huge leap forward and then got dragged 12 feet back. I felt like I was being attacked, personally attacked, our community was attacked. I got married Oct. 25, I don’t really talk about my sexual orientation, I felt like I was living my life, I wasn’t in the closet, but I was just living my life. Everybody who knows me personally, they know I’m gay. And that’s the way people should be able to live our lives, really. We shouldn’t have to be standing out here demanding something we automatically should have as citizens of this country. … They pissed off the wrong group of people. They have galvanized a community. We are so together now and we all want the same thing and we shouldn’t have to settle for less. Instead of having gay marriage in California, no, we’re gonna have gay marriage across the country. When my wife and I leave California, I want to have my marriage also recognized in Nevada, in Arizona, all the way to New York. … I’m proud to be a woman, I’m proud to be a black woman and I’m proud to be gay.”

In my interview with her, she said this: “People shouldn’t have to talk about their sexual orientation, we shouldn’t have to do it, but with the legislation that they passed, I can’t sit by and just watch. I just can’t do it.”

[From Vegas Happens Here via WeSmirch]

Good for Sykes for being out and proud and congratulations on her wedding! We hope that other same sex couples in every state in the US will soon be celebrating their long overdue right to legally marry.

Here’s Wanda Sykes on Ellen’s Halloween episode talking about Prop 8. She says it’s discrimination and jokes about the comparisons between being black and being gay.

And here’s Sykes joking about gay marriage, there are some swear words and adult themes and it’s not safe for work or around kids, but’s it’s damn funny. She says she doesn’t understand why people are upset about gay marriage because it doesn’t affect them. Sykes jokes that same sex couples aren’t a threat to marriage, divorce is. (The audio isn’t completely in sync with the video.)

Wanda Sykes is shown on 6/5/08 at The Fresh Air Fund “Salute to American Heroes” in NY. Credit: Mark Dye / PR Photos