00:00I'm Ellen, and I'm gay.
00:0320 years ago, I said that.
00:04It was a much bigger deal then.
00:06I'm so afraid to tell people.
00:07I mean, I just, Susan, I'm gay.
00:13Those words to come out of my mouth for the very first time
00:16to say I'm gay, even rehearsing it,
00:18I would burst into tears every single time.
00:20Would they still love me if they knew I was gay?
00:23And my fear was, no, they wouldn't.
00:25Why was it necessary for the character to do so?
00:29Because it's okay, because it is okay.
00:32You were punished as well.
00:34You didn't work for a year just because you were on that show.
00:38Yeah.
00:38And you're not even gay, but people thought you were gay.
00:41I never wanted to be an activist.
00:42I just wanted to entertain people.
00:44I just wanted to make people feel good.
00:45Since I've witnessed the discrimination
00:47and the double standards, I've had to rethink that.
00:51And so if by standing up for what I think is right
00:53makes me an activist, I'm an activist.
00:56You're emotional just watching that.
00:58I was like that for a couple of years after I came out.
01:01It's a scary thing to verbalize, to say it out loud.
01:04There are a lot of people out there that are struggling.
01:06So it's nice to have someone going,
01:08look, I'm successful, I'm who I am,
01:10and you don't need to talk about it.
01:11It just is who you are.
01:12I just didn't want to pretend to be somebody else anymore
01:15so that people would like me.
01:17I'm grateful to you because you did it in a time when it was
01:19much harder and much scarier.
01:22Just how important it was, not just to the LGBT community,
01:26but for all of us, to see somebody so full of kindness and light,
01:30somebody we liked so much, somebody who could be our neighbor
01:33or our colleague or our sister.
01:36Challenge our own assumptions.
01:39Remind us that we have more in common than we realize.
01:42Push our country in the direction of justice.
01:44It was the hardest thing that I ever had to do in my life,
01:47and I would not change one moment of it
01:49because it led me to be exactly where I am today,
01:52standing in front of all of you, which is a joy.
01:55And the fact that all of you and everyone at home
01:58is watching me and willing to accept me
02:00into your homes every day when no one thought
02:02that would ever happen again, it means the world to me.
02:04I thank you, and I celebrate you all.
