joan garry

When Ellen’s sitcom was cancelled, I was the CEO at GLAAD,  a media watchdog group.  My younger kids loved introducing me to friends “My mom is a watchdog!” they would say.  I remember it being a sad day.  For gay and lesbian Americans, her show (pre-Will and Grace) was more than groundbreaking.  Many of us never believed we’d see the day.  And at the time she was cancelled, we all thought her career was in real jeopardy.

Fast forward to the premiere of her talk show in 2003.  I was stll at GLAAD.  Her first guest?  Eric McCormack – Will of Will and Grace.   We couldn’t believe he was the guest. We watched in the office.  What would they talk about?  Each of them played groundbreaking characters on network television.  But the word ‘gay’ was not spoken.

My staff was kind of angry.  Why didn’t they talk aobut this?  Is she going back in the closet?   I was just plain perplexed.

I thought about this yesterday while I was on the elliptical machine, watching Ellen along millions of women across America.  I thought about it when she spoke about Britney Spears’ birthday.

‘She turned 27 yesterday.”  She shook her head. “When I was 27, I was dating men.”   And with that, the audience erupted into hilarity and applause…  Later in the episode, she and Brad Pitt talked about their shared commitment to the failed efforts to overturn Prop 8.

Yes, this is a story about Ellen.  She is just plain amazing.  But it’s also a story about us.  It’s a story about how we move the gay civil rights agenda (agenda=equality) (a very simple equation i might add) forward.

Ellen has been smart and strategic about the use of her platform.  But not in some icky manipulative way.  Using common sense and authenticity.  And it’s worked.  Brilliantly.

Ellen has shown us that you can be patient and impatient all at the same time.