Patti Labelle appears to “out” Luther Vandross and Marsha Warfield “outs” herself

Last week this video (see below) started to make it's rounds on the internet.  It's Patti LaBelle on Andy Cohen's late night show Watch What Happens Live and she seems to reveal why legendary singer Luther Vandross never came out.

Basically she says Vandross didn’t come out as homosexual because he wanted to stay loyal to his mother and to his female fans.    But is the notion that Luther was gay something new?

Well Marsha Warfield relates to this.  Marsha Warfield?  Yes, you remember her.  Among other things, she played the security guard on the TV show Night Court.  The show was on from 1984-1992.

Warfield took to Facebook to say she dealt with the same issue with her mother.  However, she says she never hid who she was.

When I told my mother I was gay, she said she knew, and had known all my life.
Then, she asked me not to come out publicly while she was alive.
I agreed, even though the request and her admission were hurtful in ways I couldn't put my finger on then, and probably haven't completely worked through now.
But, everybody who knew me, knew I was gay.
The people I didn't tell knew anyway, and tacitly agreed to pretend that the unacknowledged had been acknowledged and accepted.
Like I'm sure is true for millions of other glass door closeted people.
When I went to bars, which was frequently, I never tried to hide who I was.
So, it was an open secret.
Had I never come out publicly, many, many people would have known.
It would not then have ever really been a betrayal of trust to "spill the beans."
Because it wasn't a secret, it was an uncomfortably kept promise to my mother.
But, it was also not the only reason I didn't come out swinging when she passed.
The fear of the judgment of strangers and their holier-than-thou "shoulds" was at least as big of a burden to bear.
But the "shoulds" that "should" matter don't.
Nobody should have to hide their sexuality.
No parent should ask their child to.
There should be no shame in being gay.

And, I ain't mad at Patti LaBelle.

I'm mad at the people who are.

She then posted this saying the black community is to blame for people not revealing their sexuality.

Did you know Luther Vandross was gay?  What about Marsha Warfield?

Leave your comments for us in this post on Facebook.