Did you expect it to turn into all of this?,” Oprah Winfrey asked Ellen DeGeneres on an episode of her talk show that aired on the afternoon of April 30, 1997.
Two weeks earlier, a Time cover had debuted, featuring DeGeneres and the instantly famous words “Yep, I’m Gay.”
On April 25, DeGeneres spoke to Diane Sawyer on 20/20 and said, “I decided this was not going to be something that I was going to live the rest of my life being ashamed of.”
Hours after the Oprah interview aired, DeGeneres’s charismatic bookstore owner character, Ellen Morgan, followed suit, coming out as gay in a one-hour, two-part episode of her sitcom Ellen. “The Puppy Episode” was watched by an estimated 44 million people, nearly three times the show’s usual ratings.
It’s been 20 years since that April.
DeGeneres has hosted her own daytime talk show, also called Ellen, for nearly 14 years. She’s hosted the Oscars, won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, starred in two blockbuster cartoons, and all the while lived openly as a gay woman.
Jenner was this year’s recipient of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, named for the African American tennis star who died of AIDS in 1993.
‘Trans People Deserve Your Respect’
Caitlyn Jenner accepted her first formal award on Wednesday since announcing her transition, receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYS and giving an emotional speech in the process.
“The real truth is that before just a few months ago, I had never met anybody else who was trans,” she said. “Now as you saw, I dealt with my situation on my own, in private. It’s been eye-opening, inspiring, but also frightening.”
She went on to talk about trans youth, mentioning late trans teenagers Mercedes Williamson and Sam Taub.
“They’re getting bullied,” Jenner said of trans youth. “They’re getting beaten up. They’re getting murdered.
I must truthfully say that I didn’t think that I would be looking for information, reviewing and listening to Jenner’s acceptance speech at the ESPY’s.
I remember, back in 1976, when Jenner was the darling of the media because of his incredible feat in the Olympics and winning the Olympic decathlon men’s event champion.
Throughout all of her journey, even before she announced what she intended to, I never followed her as an American television personality. I did watch the Diane Sawyer interview where Jenner described what he had gone through all his life, her “confusion, her living up to someone she wasn’t’.
It all seemed so phony and fake to me. I wasn’t thrilled like some seemed to be. I wondered what she could bring to the table in the current situation of the trans community, the “T” in LGBTQ. I even thought this may be damaging to the advances that have been made in the acceptance of the LGBTQ community and the monumental decision of SCOTUS in making marriage equality the “law of the land”.
Some of you may be confused, since some may know that I am a proud member of the LGBTQ community, recently married and now recognized as married nationwide, that I’m not offering unconditional support to Jenner.
I watched Caitlyn Jenner’s acceptance speech at the ESPYS last night. I must say that I’m still somewhat “leery” of her intentions but I must also say that her acceptance speech was powerful, intense, heartwarming and very touching. She’s setting quite an agenda for herself.
For the sake of the LGBTQ community and for Caitlyn Jenner’s sake, I do hope that this is all real, not any kind of publicity stunt or attention seeking action. I don’t think that anyone would go through all of the jeering, abuse, anguish, medical and surgical treatment that she has gone through for publicity’s sake.
I truly got a better glimpse of her and I hope and wish only the best for her at this stage of her life.
“In her first major appearance since coming out as transgender, Caitlyn Jenner took the stage at the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles to a standing ovation. And in front of some of the world’s biggest athletes and celebrities, she told the world what the transgender community needs.”
FOR THOSE WHO CARE TO WATCH, HERE’S THE FULL ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
~~Caitlyn Jenner Full Speech~~
2015 ESPY Awards
Arthur Ashe Courage Award …. this is a different kind of courage
~~Published on Jul 15, 2015~~
Caitlyn Jenner accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYS on Wednesday night while urging acceptance for others who are transgender.
She received a standing ovation from some of the sporting world’s biggest stars after her 10-minute speech during the annual awards honoring the year’s top athletes and moments.
Major earthquake in Nepal ….. Bruce Jenner’s interview in 20/20
April 24, 2015
A 7.8 magnitude quake struck an area between the capital, Kathmandu, and the city of Pokhara, the US Geological Survey said. Tremors were felt across the region, with further loss of life in India, Bangladesh, Tibet and on Mount Everest.
The government has declared a state of emergency in the affected areas.
A national police spokesman told the BBC that 970 people had died in the quake, and that more than 1,700 had been injured. At least 539 people were killed in the Kathmandu valley, he added.
Bruce Jenner sat down with Dianne Sawyer for an exclusice two-hour interview during a special edition of ABC News “20/20” on Friday, April 24, 2015.
Born and raised by underpaid public school teachers in Sanford, Fla., Andy Marlette graduated from the University of Florida and became staff editorial cartoonist at the Pensacola News Journal in 2007.
Marlette received a priceless editorial cartoon education while living with his uncle and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette in Hillsborough, N.C. Doug’s tragic death in July of 2007 made evermore poignant the elder Marlette’s fierce and faithful devotion to the art form of editorial cartooning as a cornerstone of American free speech. With this in mind, Andy works daily to learn and uphold the disciplines and values passed on to him by his late uncle.
Andy’s editorial cartoons have become both hated and adored by daily readers. His work has been awarded by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors for best editorial cartoons on state issues and former Governor Charlie Crist referred to himself regularly as Marlette’s biggest fan, despite the fact that he was also regularly a target in cartoons.
It Is What It Is 