Queen Latifah Denies Coming Out

Queen Latifah has denied reports that her hosting the Long Beach LGBT Festival served as notice that she had come out of the closet. The rapper/actor has never spoken publicly about her private life and she says that she hasn't changed her stance.

"That definitely wasn't the case," she tells EW. "I've never dealt with the question of my personal life in public. It's just not gonna happen."

Latifah also revealed that she has done gay clubs and gay pride events before.

"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."

She reiterated her support for the LGBT community.

"I know that the most important thing and the only thing I have to give is love. When people are going through hatred and bullying, the biggest thing to fight that is love," she says. "So that's all I encouraged my audience to do that night: to share their light and share their love. Period."