Ian Johnson, Out Now
September 12, 2007
Gay Market News has something of a soft spot for the career of Ms Ellen DeGeneres.
From the days of Ellen coming out as gay on the cover of Time magazine--at the height of modern American sit-com celebrity--to Ellen DeGeneres hosting the Oscars Academy Awards this year, the impact of Ellen on modern American culture has been immense.
In fact the name 'Ellen' in modern America has taken on single-name recognition status--like 'Oprah' or 'Madonna'--in modern US popular culture.
As the first mainstream TV star celebrity to come out of the closet as a lesbian--at the height of her then existing fame, over ten years ago now, to her latter day non-chalant honesty about who she is as a modern out lesbian media communications celebrity--there is a lot to admire in the career of Ellen.
Now comes news that to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Advocate in the US gay media market, the readers of that publication have voted Ellen to be their number one 'hero' of the past 40 years.
The Advocate was born in the 1967 Summer of Love--so the new 40th anniversary issue of The Advocate features a very appropriate 'Sergeant Peppers'-rendered cover of the top 40 lesbian and gay people of the past 40 years - as voted by the magazine's readers.
Others nominated in The Advocate 40th anniversary special issue for consideration included the 1970s out gay San Francisco City Supervisor, Harvey Milk; the out gay US Democrat, Barney Frank; and the rock celebrity lesbian artist, Melissa Etheridge.
Personally I am not entirely comfortable with the notion that just one individual person is somehow 'more' heroic than others. How about the varied lives of millions of other lesbians and gay men--some famous and many not?
There are heroes all around in the lesbian and gay communities.
People who by their very day-to-day lives make it just that little bit easier for the gays and lesbians of the next generation to find a world that welcomes their existence in it more than has often been the case in the past.
In that regard there is perhaps a great deal to admire in the specific career success of Ellen DeGeneres that diverges somewhat from other celebrities like Anderson Cooper and Jodie Foster--who 'may or may not be' gay.
Ellen took what many considered to be a career risk in the name of honesty, and is now enjoying the rewards from that. All power to her.
People like Elton John and Rosie O'Donnell are also out gay celebrities of the modern era that many people respect and admire, and whose careers do not seem to have suffered from their decision to come out of the closet.
But in any case, if you have to pick one modern gay or lesbian celebrity to win, we are certainly pleased to learn of the obvious high esteem in which the readers of The Advocate hold Ellen DeGeneres.
Here is an extract from that September 25, 2007 special 40th anniversary issue of The Advocate on Ellen DeGeneres and heroes:
40 heroes
We have a winner...and it's Ellen!
Ten years after she outed herself -- and her sitcom character -- Ellen DeGeneres is on top of the world. She’s happily partnered. She’s wealthy. She’s hosted the Oscars. And five days a week, she shows millions of straight TV fans that being gay is no big deal. What other LGBT figure of the past 40 years has made a more spectacular mark on the world?
But that certainly isn’t the only reason Advocate readers voted her our biggest hero of the past 40 years. We love tales of people who take big risks, go through hard times, then brush themselves off and emerge better and brighter than ever. And that’s Ellen for you.
In 1997, at age 39, she just couldn’t breathe in the closet anymore, so she took a big gulp of fresh air and acknowledged what everyone already suspected: She likes girls. Television stars just didn’t admit such things then. She was a pioneer, and pioneers make things a little less scary for everyone following in their paths.
Ellen’s own path turned rocky after the brilliant “Puppy Episode,” in which her TV character Ellen Morgan came out. Before long Ellen was canceled, her relationship with mercurial Anne Heche ended in a blaze of weirdness, and her next sitcom, The Ellen Show, flopped. Ellen herself tells The Advocate that she went through a period of being “upset and torn and bitter,” feeling that she’d “lost everything.”
Some of us might complain that Ellen doesn’t play up gayness more on her talk show, but maybe we’re just impossible to please. After all, some of us complained that Ellen became too gay. Fact is, the Ellen of 2007 doesn’t hide who she is: She’s very open about her relationship with Portia de Rossi, she still dresses in dyke-next-door chic, and she represents for the community. “I think I represent honesty,” Ellen says, “and I’m proud to represent that.”
Ellen took the risk; Ellen took the heat. And now her daily unapologetic presence as a lesbian on TV normalizes gayness for Middle America -- a huge feat.
“I’m sure there were those who weren’t so famous who did a lot of great work,” (Ellen DeGeneres) says of the gay heroes of the past 40 years. “So I really am touched. It’s a huge compliment.”
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