56 - Louisiana, Ellen DeGeneres

A comedian, humanitarian, and honest person, showing that you can be just who you are. Ellen DeGeneres has taught me a lot. I don't avidly follow her, but I have seen her throughout my life.

Louisiana signed the Nineteenth Amendment to their constitution on June 11, 1970.



Television comedian and actress, Ellen DeGeneres, opened America to LGBT issues coming out to the public in 1997 on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Starring in her self-named TV sitcom “Ellen”, the fourth season revealed her personal and show character’s lesbian truth. The theme and storyline of the show developed around issues of LGBT community, focusing on the coming out process.

The show was canceled in 1998, but she continued to develop her stage presence, starting the Ellen DeGeneres Show. Her personal style, humor, and character segments make her show popular in daytime television, winning 61 Daytime Emmy Awards, surpassing The Oprah Winfrey Show with eleven best show awards.

She advocates for many human rights beyond the LGBT community she leads. She and her wife Portia de Rossi are vegans in support of animal welfare and rights. She supports the David Sheldrick Wildlife Foundation to ban elephant trophies from Africa coming to America. In 2019,Rossi gave Ellen a permanent gorilla home in Rwanda in honor of the Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund. PETA named her Woman of the Year in 2009. She works with organizations that support at risk populations suffering with chronic stress disorders, supporting the David Lynch Foundation. Hillary Clinton appointed her a special envoy for Global AIDS Awareness.

Why this woman?
Many actors use their name and value for good purpose, but it is not all that live the values they are supporting in the same way that Ellen does. When she came out to the public in 1997, she was well known and respected. She was one of the first, if not the first, woman comedian to sit with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. She starred in her hit show which I watched for its quirky humor and characters. She risked it all in a time when coming out was exceptionally hard. I was a sophomore in college, and definitely still in a world of little awareness or acceptance of gay movements. It just wasn’t around me. I later found out who the friends around me that struggled with their secret. Ellen shared it with the world, and when the industry pulled back, she turned on the throttle.

She is now not only a leader in the industry, she is the strength of women comedians. She  is officially my generations’ Carol Burnett winning the Golden Globes Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. She is herself, unquestioningly and unapologetically. And she uses the value of herself to empower people around her that can’t fight, especially if they just need the financial support to combat the expensive leaders that have taken hold of our economy.

She is a role model to me with her sense of humor, empathetic nature, and open emotions. She gives of herself with little reserve to help others know they can be who they need to be. They can be quirky. They can do a jig, or lower their guard. Maybe with this honesty, we can all talk, listen, and learn as friends.

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