24 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
APRIL 18, 1997
ON THE AIR OFF THE PRESS
·
Ellen DeGeneres comes out of closet ahead of character
by John Graves
Ellen DeGeneres, whose character Ellen Morgan on ABC's Ellen will come out April 30, came out herself last week.
Although DeGeneres was expected to clarify her sexual orientation in an interview on ABC's Prime Time Live the week before the coming-out episode, she surprised everyone by coming out in last week's issue of Time magazine. I personally think this move was a brilliant end run around on the tabloid press with their "shocking" headlines and the homophobic slant to their reporting.
DeGeneres was moved to tears when she received a three-minute standing ovation at
the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards ceremony last month. Speaking to the crowd of activists, actors and celebrities DeGeneres said, "What better way to change the show and do something positive and wonderful than by having my character come out?"
The March 29 edition of TV Guide ran a special, behind-the-scenes report on the history of the Ellen coming out episode. TV
Unfortunately, a TV Guide poll in the same issue indicates that although most respondents-46%-feel that whether the show's move is good or bad is dependent on how it is handled, only 11% felt the coming out idea was good while 37% were opposed to Ellen coming out at all.
"What better way to
Guide also included some mini-reports about change the show and do
the show including an interview with Dave Savel and Mark Driscoll, the show's execu-
tive producers, and a report on the mostly negative reaction in Atlanta, Texas, DeGeneres' small Southern home town.
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something positive and wonderful than by having my character come out?”
Please, it's very important you show your support for this ground-breaking show. This is a wonderful opportunity for the public to observe the coming-out process of both the character and the star of Ellen, as we started to do when teenage actor Wilson Cruz came out. (Cruz played a teenager just coming out on My So-Called Life right before ABC canceled the show in early 1996.)
Do watch the Ellen Morgan coming out episode on April 30 and get your family and friends to watch. Contact ABC, the local affiliate and the show's sponsors if possible and show your support for important and positive roles on television. Ellen will be off the air for a couple of weeks until the final Tuesday 8:30 pm airing on April 22. The hour-long coming out show will air on Wednesday, April 30, at 9:00 pm.
However, you can expect the coming out of Ellen DeGeneres and Ellen Morgan to be hot topics on talk and news magazine shows for the next few weeks. Chastity Bono, Andrew Sullivan, Jennifer Levin and other lesbians and gays have already debated the
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issues this past week with Jerry Falwell and other homophobes on PBS' Charlie Rose show; Larry King Live on CNN; and Fox's Crier & Company and Hannity and Colmes.
Rebekka Armstrong, a bisexual former Playboy Playmate living with AIDS, was recently profiled on CBS' Inside Edition. Armstrong is also the subject of an article in the April 7 edition of People magazine.
Look for lesbian performance artist Prudence Brown in It Just Takes One, a USA special where people show how they use the arts to break down prejudice and combat bigotry.
Crime novelist Patricia Cornwell acknowledges that she had a lesbian relationship with former FBI agent Margurite Bennett in the latest edition of Vanity Fair. Bennett's exhusband Eugene had charged the two women were lovers in an attempt to win custody of the couple's children. Eugene Bennett's plans unraveled when he allegedly tried to ambush and kill Marguerite in 1996.
A couple of weeks ago, I happened to be listening to Lee Ann Sommers' show on Cleveland's Jammin' 92.3 FM when a little girl called in requesting a song and said, “I want to dedicate it to my beautiful girlfriend, Heather."
Sommers, who was pretty supportive of gay issues when she hosted the morning show with homophobic shock-jock Johnny D, paused and asked how old the caller was. When the girl said she was ten, Sommers asked incredulously, "You're ten years old and you have a beautiful girlfriend?" The girl firmly said "yes."
Sommers paused for only a second before asking whether she planned to party that weekend. When the girl said she hadn't made any plans, Sommers went on to urge her to ask her parents to take her and her girlfriend to an upcoming Jammin' 92 party. Sommers also played selections from Ellen DeGeneres? comedy CD all afternoon, after the news broke about the actress coming out as a lesbian.
Finally, here's a special thanks to Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Eleanor Mallet for the huge, three-page article on the tragic suicide of gay St. Ignatius student Robbie Kirkland that appeared on the front page of the daily's Sunday, April 6 issue. Included were reports on the problems of gay and lesbian youth; the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center's PRYSM youth group; and last weekend's Midwest Gay Lesbian Straight Teachers Network conference at Cleveland State University.
Robbie's story, which first appeared in the February 21 Chronicle, will also be covered in an upcoming segment of CBS's 60 Minutes.
John Graves is the producer and host of Gaywaves, a lesbian-gay public affairs show on Cleveland's WRUW 91.1 FM Fridays at 7 pm. Dave Haskell and Jim McGrattan also contributed to this column.
ARTHUR E. OTT
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