Oscar-nominated actor Aunjanue Ellis rocked it portraying Brandi Williams in “King Richard”. More recently, she worked the red carpet at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards in a red pantsuit with the word “Queer” shining bright in rhinestones on her suit jacket.
Ellis, who is openly bisexual, said, “This is who I am” in an interview. Why she chose to publicly do it on the red carpet, was something she not only needed but wanted to do. To her surprise, the amazing Dolce & Gabbana suit proudly displaying her queerness didn’t get any reactions from the press.
“I was thinking, ‘Why didn’t more people pay attention to that?” said Ellis in an interview with Variety. “It wasn’t that I was expecting any sort of major reaction or anything like that. One of my family members noticed, but nobody else did.”
While the press didn’t have much reaction, Ellis suspects that people thought the word read “Queen” and not “Queer”. While the press missed the fashion statement, her family noticed, and they weren’t too happy about it.
Ellis, who is 53, grew up in Mississippi in a religious family. Despite their knowing how she identifies, Ellis shared that her family was “hurt” by her public display of self-expression. She recalled growing up in church, and said she knew at the age of 8 that she was queer and remembers questioning certain things in the Bible.
In an interview, she recalled questioning why a woman had to be submissive. At 30-years-old, Ellis came into her own and recognized that she was bisexual while participating in Sundance Lab with another female participant. She vividly recalls the walk and her awakening:
“We walked by this stream,” Ellis told Variety, “and there was a moment when the sun was hitting the water, and I was looking down in the water, and it was so clear, and I can only hear this woman’s voice behind me. I said, ‘This is how I’m supposed to feel. This is what I’ve been waiting to feel my entire life.”
