Fan Mail for Ellen

By Lee Lynch

I am worse than a star-struck teenager. I thought I got over hero-worshipping long ago. There was my gym teacher back in high school and – well, there was my gym teacher, with her big blue eyes, squeaky clean white sneakers, living with the school librarian and a world of secrets. What did I see in her?

At least my criteria have improved. Ellen DeGeneres is at the top of her game, and it’s not volleyball. As a matter of fact, she’s at the top of most people’s games. Okay, you could be Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi, but, no offence, they’re not out lesbians.

Seriously, who is doing more for gay people these days than Ellen? What other dyke is striding across the Academy Awards stage in red velvet butchwear and dancing with hot female leads on daytime T.V.?

After Ellen came out, she was in the celebrity doghouse for a while. A lot of us would have taken our whippings and, for example, gotten law degrees, as one former still-closeted entertainer did. No attorney could have this impact.

I used to be a snob; T.V. held no interest for me. The Oscars? I watched exactly once at an Oscar Party. My partner won the traditional “guess the winners” contest without having seen any of the films. The whole show was a big dull publicity stunt as far as I was concerned. Ratings-meisters take heed: this viewer tuned in for only one reason: Ellen DeGeneres.

Not only did I watch, I shouted and cheered. My attitude might not have pleased the Academy. Whenever “Notes On A Scandal” was up for an award, even when the nomination was Judi Dench’s, I rooted for anyone who was not a part of that lesbian-bashing drama. Dench may be the greatest actress on earth, but I wish she had chosen a vehicle for her talents that did not perpetrate the misleading image of old lesbians as evil predators. The irony is obvious. The Dench character was a nominee and the host was a lesbian. I haven’t seen anything in the media about Ellen’s jokes at Dench’s expense – implying that Dench’s knee surgery was in actuality a cosmetic makeover. I certainly would have been tempted to make a nasty crack or two to discredit a film that was an insulting throwback to the days of “The Fox” and “The Killing of Sister George.”

It was icing on the cake when best song-winning Melissa Etheridge kissed her partner and referred to Tammy Lynn Michaels as her wife. The cameras also honored Ellen’s partner Portia De Rossi and Ellen’s mom: Betty DeGeneres. I mist up every time I see her look proudly at her daughter. Maybe that’s one reason I admire Ellen: because she came out, Mother DeGeneres has been standing up for all of us ever since. This family is a living example of the rewards of coming out.

In an interview, Ellen said that she’s always wanted to make money as well as succeed as a comedian. This may seem an obvious goal, but it’s not something lesbians have been good at. She lucked out by missing the years when being a lesbian made success at anything but survival next to impossible, and she missed the downwardly mobile years, back when gay lib grew out of a revolutionary mindset which disdained material gain. Ellen may be a love child of women’s and gay lib: born into a world reaching for gay and proud.

I recently saw “The L Word” for the first time. Though not into glamour gals myself, I admired the production, the issues raised and the diversity of characters. Could the show even have been conceived of before Ellen boldly went where no woman had gone before?

Ellen DeGeneres is just the dyke next door, except for her brilliant comedic talents and obvious business acumen. She seems also to be honest and honorable in the best butch tradition. She barely had role models yet created herself out of her own agonies and dreams. The best of lesbian icons, her career is terrifically significant for all gay people. She has demonstrated that we not only have a right to, but can reach our full human potentials.

Yesterday, I was at a job-related conference. I hate wasting time on these things and spent the day writing. When the friendly woman next to me asked, I conjured up Ellen in her red velvet suit, looked the woman in the eye and answered, “My column – for lesbian and gay papers cross the country.” Thank you, Ellen.