“And that’s when I said, ‘Liquor? I hardly know her!'”

The featured story of the moment at the New York Times website: Across U.S., Big Rallies for Same-Sex Marriage. An excerpt:

In Las Vegas, the comedian Wanda Sykes surprised a crowd of more than 1,000 rallying outside a gay community center by announcing that she is gay and had wed her wife in California on Oct. 25. Ms. Sykes, who divorced her husband of seven years in 1998, had never publicly discussed her sexual orientation but said the passage of Proposition 8 had propelled her to be open about it.

You can read more of Wanda’s Las Vegas statements here. She’s one of my favorite comedians and I applaud her for finally coming out. It can only help her stand-up routine; now she can let loose in her bit about gay marriage in a way she couldn’t before.

And if you haven’t already, while you’re at the Times be sure to check out this Jesse McKinely piece about the impact of Mormon donations on the Yes on 8 campaign. It’s important to know your enemy.

UPDATE: I thought it might be worth pointing out that Wanda’s The New Adventures of Old Christine costar Julia Louis-Dreyfus recently did a “Big Gay Following” interview with Brandon Voss of The Advocate that contains a few exchanges made more interesting by today’s announcement.

Voss: In the current season of The New Adventures of Old Christine your character marries Wanda Sykes’s character, who’s also straight, to prevent her from being deported. What inspired that story line?

Louis-Dreyfus: Obviously, same-sex marriage is a hot topic these days, particularly in California, and it just seemed like a strong story line for Wanda and me to play.

There’s also this — you can understand why Louis-Dreyfus laughed at the question (and I’d like to know if Voss was about to laugh while asking it):

Voss: Who’d make a better lesbian — you or Wanda?

Louis-Dreyfus: [Laughs] It would have to be a tie. I think we would both make wonderful lesbians. I have been hit on by women, so I guess I’ve been mistaken for a lesbian. I say, “Thanks, but no thanks!” — just like Sarah Palin.

And finally:

Voss: With so many closeted actors out there, is it refreshing to work on Old Christine with an openly gay actress like Jane Lynch?

Louis-Dreyfus: Jane Lynch! That’s definitely who I would become a lesbian for. Oh, my God, she is so fantastic and funny. I love her.

Yeah, I have worked with closeted actors, and I can understand why certain actors are reticent to reveal their sexuality in public for fear of everything you can think of — pigeonholing themselves into a certain kind of character, blah, blah, blah — but it’s always nice to not have to work around secrets.