Comedian, writer and producer Amber Ruffin made headlines over the last 12 months for several reasons: namely, coming out as queer and then vocally standing up against the current White House administration. The latter caused her to lose one of her most high-profile gigs.
Coming out
At the end of June 2024, on the last day of Pride Month, Ruffin, 46, posted a photo of herself on Instagram wearing a tank top emblazoned with the word “Queer”.
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In an accompanying caption, she said, “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!! 🏳️🌈”
“Me living in that distance is kind of a lie”
Ruffin is a long-time contributor and regular face on Late Night With Seth Meyers. She hosted The Amber Ruffin Show on Peacock and a podcast with her sister, Lacey Lamar.
Ruffin has also made a splash on Broadway. She co-wrote the recent revival of Some Like It Hot and updated the book for The Wiz. She has received six Primetime Emmy nominations.
“I came out as soon as I realized that I was not straight, and I did it solely because I didn’t want anybody stepping to me with no bulls–t,” she told Them in February. “So I feel like I could say there was absolutely no change in anything when I came out. Didn’t nobody care. No one gave a s–t. I feel like if you watch The Amber Ruffin Show, you know not to bring no s–t around me.
“But I could feel the tiniest bit of, ‘Those poor gay people. What are they going to do?’ Like that, you know? And it’s not with any malice. It’s just like, ‘Ugh, those poor young folks of today.’ I didn’t like that distance. And I felt like me living in that distance is kind of a lie. I wasn’t ever going to come out because I didn’t see the need, because I didn’t think it mattered in any way. But it did, and I was wrong. That didn’t last very long.”
White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Since coming out, Ruffin’s become a regular on CNN’s Have I Got News for You.
Making jokes about politics and current affairs is one of her many strengths. It’s therefore not surprising that at the beginning of February, the White House Correspondents Association announced Ruffin would be the guest comic at its annual dinner in DC in April.
Eugene Daniels, president of the White House Correspondents Association, said in a statement at the time, “When I began to think about what entertainer would be a perfect fit for the dinner this year, Amber was immediately at the top of my list.
“I’m thrilled and honored she said yes.”
The 2025 event was set to be the first since Tr*mp returned to the office of President. He famously refused to attend the dinner during his first term in office, and few thought he would show up on this occasion. Surely that meant Ruffin could get away with roasting him to her heart’s content?
Sadly, not.
Disinvited
At the end of March, the WHCA announced it was dropping Ruffin from the event.
Daniels issued a new statement saying the board wanted to ditch the comedian section of the event and focus on honoring journalists only.
“At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division, but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists,” he said in a statement.
The decision came just a day after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich criticized Ruffin over recent comments she made about the administration.
Boduwich shared a clip of Ruffin talking about her upcoming WHCA gig. In it, Ruffin called the administration “a kind of a bunch of murderers”. Ruffin also said she’d been asked to keep her speech “equal”, but she said, “There’s no way I’m going to be freaking doing that, dude. Under no circumstances.”
Boduwich used the clip to criticize the annual dinner and anyone planning to attend.
“What kind of responsible, sensible journalist would attend something like this?” Budowich wrote on X. “More importantly, what kind of company would sponsor such as [sic] hate-filled and violence-inspiring event?”
Ruffin claps back
Ruffin was quick to—obliquely—address her lost opportunity. Appearing on Seth Meyers’ show that week, she interrupted the host while he was telling a story about a robbery at a grocery store.
Ruffin said Myers wasn’t being a proper journalist and said, “If there’s one thing I learned from this weekend, you have to be fair to both sides.”
They then engaged in a back-and-forth about why being “fair” to both sides goes out the window when one side is clearly doing bad and harmful things.
Watch below.
Ruffin also talked about it on Have I Got News For You. She said “I lost the gig because I talked sh*t.”
She went on to say, “I think it’s a good thing I lost the gig because I was going to show up there and act all the way out.”
Ruffin said that when she got the booking, she imagined she would broadly target people across the political spectrum. However, “then they started disappearing people … They rolled back f–king civil rights. So I was like ‘If I make this equal then I’m also a piece of s–t.’ I can’t f–king do that.”
Doing her own thing
Many applauded Ruffin for refusing to curtail her act or censor her criticism of the President. We doubt it’s harmed her career, either. After losing the WHCA, she was selected to host PEN America’s gala fundraiser in May.
Besides that, she remains as busy as ever with her TV and theater work. She continues to place importance on doing what she wants to do and saying what she wants to say.
“I don’t set goals,” Ruffin told LateNighter last year. “I don’t have any, like, ‘By a certain time, I want to make sure to have X number of musicals’ or whatever. Maybe I’ll have some more, maybe I won’t. As long as I can do exactly what I feel like doing—and that’s kind of where I am now—then I’m just gonna do that.”
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