Ellen Degeneres: Civil Rights Activist?
When Ellen Degeneres came out in 1997, she made history. Here was a successful woman with a popular TV show making a decision that would not only cause turmoil in her private life, but would also impact her career, or possibly end it.
In 1998, The Ellen show was canceled, despite maintaining good ratings. The show was canceled because of the public backlash towards Ellen, the network and the show’s advertisers.
After that, Ellen faded into the background for several years.
When Ellen reemerged, and began moving back into the media mainstream, it was as if her orientation were no longer an issue for the general public. She never went back into the closet or went back to dating men, she was still the Ellen we had come to know after her outing in ‘97. But, for her part, Ellen stayed away from LGBT issues. It was as if she understood that the general public will adore her because she’s genuinely funny and charming, but just as long as she doesn’t talk about her personal life.
Except, she is now.
As any fan of her show knows, Ellen has always kept a hands off approach when it comes to issues affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. That’s what makes the past few weeks remarkable, and amazing.
On February 29, a visibly emotional Ellen had the following to say about a hate crime that occured on February 12:
“On February 12th, an openly gay 15-year-old boy named Larry who was an eighth-grader in Oxnard, California was murdered by a fellow eighth-grader named Brandon. Larry was killed because he…was gay. Days before he was murdered, Larry asked his killer to be his Valentine…And somewhere along the line the killer Brandon got the message that it’s so threatening and so awful and so horrific that Larry would want to be his Valentine that killing Larry seemed to be the right thing to do. And when the message out there is so horrible that to be gay you can be killed for it, we need to change the message.”
Here is the entire video:
Honestly, hearing about Lawrence King’s murder on Ellen was the first time I had hear or seen it mentioned in any media outlet. After her public condemnation, I’m still waiting to see the story picked up by other major media outlets. As of now, it’s all been a quiet affair without much publicity, which goes to show what the life of a gay person is really worth today.
So, needless to day, I was impressed with Ellen for taking such a public stance. For the past few years, she’s managed to walk the straight and narrow (pun intended) of being a lesbian but being a TV friendly lesbian, which means not ruffling any feathers. By making such a firm and decisive message on national TV, Ellen put herself back to 1997. She again brought her own sexuality to the forefront and gave narrow-minded individuals a reason to target her. She put her career and her safety in jeopardy once again.
I watched the show and was proud, but then fully expected Ellen to go back into semi-stealth mode. Continue the dancing, the funny interviews, but keep off of gay issues all together.
I was wrong.
On March 12, Ellen responded on her show to the remarks of Oklahoma Representative Sally Kern, where Kern said that homosexuality was a bigger threat to America than terrorism or Islam.
Ellen played a piece of Sally’s speech, then attempted to call the Representative only to find out her voicemail was full.
Watch the clip:
When Ellen was unable to reach her, she left a message on national TV asking Sally to call her back, because she’s like to clear some things up for her.
I walked away from all of this with a new found respect for Ellen.
She could have easily done what was wise for her career and kept her mouth shut, but, instead, she’s using the platform that she’s been given to stand up for the LGBT community, something that’s generally considered career suicide in Hollywood. I am proud of her for being true to herself and for talking candidly about the issues that affect her and our community, even when those topics aren’t ratings friendly.
What do you think? Is Ellen emerging as a new civil rights activist for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community?