Amber Ruffin Delivers Triumphant Pride Month Finale By Coming Out as Queer

Comic, writer and former late-night host Amber Ruffin decided we all deserved to close out Pride Month in style, posting on instagram a photograph of herself in a QUEER QUEER QUEER t-shirt with the caption, “In what will come as a shock to exactly zero people, I’m using the last day of PRIDE to come out! Be proud of who you are, little babies! I know I am! And I can’t wait to be discriminated against for a new reason!!”

Tan France, who honestly is becoming the king of gays complimeting other gays for coming out, responded with enthusiasm, “Yay!! Happy Pride, love!! I hope you feel so loved and supported! ❤️”

Sophia Bush noted another new addition to Team Gay: “Welcome home Amber!! Our team just keeps getting hotter and smarter!! Happy Pride, dear one 💞”

Cynthia Erivo wrote: “Welcome baby love!! bathrooms are to the left, refreshments to the right, grab a chair. The DJ takes requests.❤️”

Lena Waithe, Jessica Betts (musician married to Niecy Nash), Ashley Nicole Black, Phoebe Robinson, ER Fightmaster, D’Arcy Carden and many more celebrities chimed in with words of love and support.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 13: Amber Ruffin (L) attends 28th Annual Webby Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on May 13, 2024 in New York City.

(Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

Ruffin is a dynamic and ground-breaking force in the wide world of comedy writing and acting — she became the first Black woman to write for a late-night network talk show in the United States when she began writing for Late Night With Seth Meyers in 2014, where she and her (gay) writing partner Jenny Hagel (who she met while performing with The Second City in Denver and Chicago) would appear onscreen with Seth for the segment “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell,” which is our favorite Seth Meyers segment obviously. She wrote for the deeply beloved first season of A Black Lady Sketch Show and Comedy Central’s Detroiters. She hosted her very own talk show, The Amber Ruffin Show, on Peacock from 2020 through 2023, which was nominated for Awards including Emmys, TCAs, Critics Choice and GLAAD. She won a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for co-writing the adaptation of Some Like It Hot with Matthew López. She’s written two books with her sister, Lacey Lamar, the New York Times Bestseller You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism and The World Record Book of Racist Stories. 

But Ruffin began her career on the stage, doing improv, community theatre and school plays in her hometown of Omaha, and she was recently tapped to write the revised book for The Wiz‘s return to Broadway in April.

Ruffin had married Dutch artist Jan Schiltmeijer in 2010, and they divorced in 2023.

We can’t wait to include everything she does in everything we do going forward.

Happy Pride, everyone!

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3266 articles for us.

Contribute to the conversation...

Yay! You've decided to leave a comment. That's fantastic. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated by the guidelines laid out in our comment policy. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation and thanks for stopping by!