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Black History Month Spotlight: Celebrating Wanda Sykes

Wanda Sykes
Wanda Sykes, Image Source: GLAAD

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Wanda Sykes may be best-known as an Emmy award-winning actress, writer, and comedian, but she’s also a passionate LGBTQ+ advocate, according to her Wikipedia page. In addition to awards for her acting, she has been honored by GLAAD, and continues to break barriers and speak out for others.

Sykes’ original career track was far-removed from the one on which she wound up. After graduating from Hampton University, she worked at the National Security Agency for five years. It didn’t take her long to become drawn to the comedy world, and she first appeared in front of an audience doing stand-up comedy at the Coors Light Super Talent Showcase in Washington, D.C.

Wanda Sykes
Wanda Sykes, Image Source: GLAAD

Several years later, after appearing in a number of local shows, she moved to New York City and began appearing on, and writing for, television. She won an Emmy as a writer for “The Chris Rock Show” in 1999. Over the years, she has appeared in a variety of television shows, movies, and stand-up specials, and has written a book called Yeah, I Said It.

Sykes came out as a lesbian in 2008 while rallying against Proposition 8, a law forbidding equal marriage in California. She appeared in GLSEN’s “Think Before You Speak” campaign against homophobic language, and was awarded the GLAAD Stephen F. Kolzak Award and the Activism in the Arts honor at the Triumph Awards. In 2009, Sykes became the first African American woman, and the first LGBTQ+ individual, to be the featured entertainer for the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

Sykes is also a vocal supporter of the Ruth Ellis Center, a nonprofit organization that helps homeless, runaway, and at-risk LGBTQ+ youth.

Learn more about Sykes on her Wikipedia page here.

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21sepAll Day15octClark Gable Slept Here

29sepAll Day08octRiver City Pride

05octAll Day06International Culture of Remembrance Symposium

05octAll Day08TIGLFF Film Festival Tampa Edition

05octAll Day09GIW Beach

06oct7:00 pmYbor City Sirens Presents Horrorlesque: Kick Off To Halloween

07oct10:00 am4:00 pmDiversity, Equity, and Inclusion Book Giveaway

07oct5:00 pmParranda

07oct8:00 pm10:00 pmThe Witches Ball

08oct5:00 pm9:00 pmLickHer Pop @ The Saint Speakeasy

12octAll Day05novLove! Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally

13oct6:00 pmWest Coast Pride Presents ‘Coming Out on Fright Night’

13oct8:00 pmTricks And Screams: Be Witched

13oct10:00 pmThe Playbois

14oct11:00 am4:00 pmCome Out St. Pete Family Day Celebration

14oct11:00 am3:00 pmUnite For Good Bazaar

14oct11:30 am3:00 pmCASA Pinellas Scavenger Hunt

14oct3:00 pm9:00 pmGulf Coast LGBTQ Center’s Northwest Florida Pride Fest

14oct4:00 pm9:00 pmPridetoberfest

14oct6:00 pm10:00 pmVisuality’s Coming Out Gala

14oct6:00 pm11:00 pmQueer Easels Vol 4

14oct(oct 14)6:30 pm15(oct 15)2:00 amNational LGBTQ Task Force Gala

14oct7:00 pm10:00 pmEquality Florida’s 2023 Suncoast Celebration

19oct7:00 pmMichael Goodman’s 60th Birthday Cher-abration Starring Michael Dean as Cher at Lips Fort Lauderdale

19oct7:00 pmWatermark’s Movies Out Loud

20octAll Day29Fantasy Fest Key West

20oct6:00 pm10:00 pmReady, Set, Pride Mixer

20oct7:00 pmOutstage at Palm Beach Dramaworks – Lobby Hero

20oct8:00 pmUnholy Pride Halloween Event

21oct11:00 amThe Sarasota PRIDE Festival

21oct12:00 pm2:00 pmHalloween Drag Brunch

21oct12:00 pm10:00 pmCome Out With Pride Festival, Marketplace & Parade

21oct5:00 pm7:00 pmAll Families Play! PFLAG Safety Harbor Family Playgroup

22octAll Day06jan“Chehantamo: How Are You?” Seminole Fine Art Exhibit at History Fort Lauderdale

22oct6:00 pmCLOSET BALL 2024 at Southern Nights Tampa

22oct6:00 pmLala Wiggy’s MURDER MYSTERY Drag Cabaret

23oct8:30 am12:00 pmFlorida Food is Medicine JUMPSTART Session

23oct7:00 pmJungle LGBTQ+ After Party

24oct6:30 pm8:30 pmFilm Screening of “You’re Loved”

26oct5:30 pm7:00 pmArts Mean Business Speaker Series Featuring Figurative Painter and Muralist Elio Mercado / Evoca1

26oct8:00 pm40th Anniversary Headdress Ball

27octAll Day304-Day LGBTQIA+ Well-Being & Community Building Retreat

27oct7:00 pmHalloween Glam Bingo

27oct9:30 pm11:30 pmMonsters Booze Cruise

28oct4:00 pm7:00 pmTampa Riverwalk Trick or Treat

28oct8:00 pmHall-O-Queen

29oct8:00 pm10:30 pmFright Night Delight – A Sweet Screams Burlesque

29oct8:00 pmKavaween

31oct01nov3 Year Anniversary Halloween Party

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