Wanda Sykes Recalls First Gay Person She Ever Clocked on TV

by Brandon Voss

6h ago

Who doesn’t love a big gay pianist?

Wanda Sykes appeared this week on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to plug Visible: Out on Television, her upcoming Apple TV+ docuseries, which spotlights LGBTQ visibility on the small screen.

DeGeneres naturally asked the comedian to name the first LGBTQ person she remembers seeing on TV.

“I guess it had to be Liberace,” said Sykes, who recalled watching the legendary entertainer on The Ed Sullivan Show with her grandmother and parents. “You had to know that Liberace was gay.”

DeGeneres pointed out that Liberace, who died in 1987 of AIDS-related illness, never publicly said he was gay while he was alive.

“You don’t have to say it,” Sykes joked. “He’s got beads and feathers. Why does he have to say ‘I’m gay’… Look at that,” she continued, pointing at photos of the pianist in his flamboyant finery. “That says, ‘Hey, I’m gay!’”

The Emmy-winning 2013 biopic Behind the Candelabra, which starred Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, was based on a memoir by Scott Thorson, Liberace’s lover. But what about those people who still don’t believe Liberace was gay?

“Those people are dumb,” Sykes said. “You see him, you’re like, ‘Oh, that guy appreciates another man. That guy, that Liberace, he appreciates a gentleman caller.’”

As NewNowNext previously reported, Visible, executive-produced by Sykes and fellow out Hollywood veteran Wilson Cruz, “will explore themes such as invisibility, homophobia, the evolution of the LGBTQ character, and coming out in the television industry.”

Narrated by Janet Mock, Margaret Cho, Asia Kate Dillon, Neil Patrick Harris, and Lena Waithe, the five-part original docuseries will feature new interviews with DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey, Anderson Cooper, Billy Porter, Rachel Maddow, Don Lemon, Sara Ramirez, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and more.

“It shows not just our history, but it just shows how important being seen on television [is]… how it does actually effect change,” Sykes told DeGeneres. “It moves the needle.”

“I just hope that people who get to make decisions, that they see this and realize that… it’s important for us to let marginalized people tell their stories,” she added. “The story doesn’t have to be about, ‘Oh, I’m gay,’ There’s more to us than that.”  

Visible: Out on Television premieres February 14 on Apple TV+

Watch Sykes on Ellen below.