Culture

Ellen DeGeneres Used Her Final Show to Remind People She Wasn’t Allowed to Say Gay


At long last, Ellen DeGeneres is off of TV — but to her credit, the comedian’s last hurrah did come with some heartening words about LGBTQ+ progress.

During the final broadcast of her show Ellen on Thursday, the comedian shared some relevant words of hope. “When we started this show I couldn’t say ‘gay’ on the show,” DeGeneres remembered, per Deadline, obliquely alluding to the “Don’t Say Gay” legislative controversies in Florida and across the U.S. “I couldn’t say ‘we,’ because that implied that I was with someone,” DeGeneres continued. “Sure couldn’t say wife; that’s because it wasn’t legal for gay people to get married. And now I say ‘wife’ all the time.”

It doesn’t seem like much sometimes, but DeGeneres isn’t wrong to point out how much has changed for LGBTQ+ people in TV and other media since Ellen began in September 2003. Whether our heightened visibility is a good thing or not is something of a gray area, but erasing LGBTQ+ folks and our identities from popular culture entirely — regardless of how much conservatives might wish it — is no longer possible, or even popular. That’s something to reflect on and appreciate, even as the far right ramps up its attacks on our communities: our existence is undeniable, and our communities will always find new paths to thrive.

The once-beloved DeGeneres hosted her daytime talk show Ellen for 19 seasons, but announced last year that the current season would be its last, following a slew of toxic workplace allegations against her that swiftly tanked the show’s ratings. Despite her cultivated persona of a kind, quirky lesbian who liked dancing and helping others, numerous employees reported that she and her producers presided over a culture of “racism, fear, and intimidation” on set, where sexual misconduct was “rampant.”

But even in the face of all that, DeGeneres isn’t sorry and seemed to dedicate Thursday’s final episode to hammering home the myth of her boundless kindness. A series of celebrities including Jennifer Aniston and Billie Eilish trotted out to praise DeGeneres’s veneer of kindness, with Pink even gushing to the comedian that “You help people find their joy.” Knowing what we do about how DeGeneres’s own employees were allegedly treated, the show’s self-congratulatory sendoff montage of feel-good moments feels… greasy.

Unfortunately, when Ellen says her show was “the greatest experience I have ever had,” it was also the literal stage for other people’s worst experiences — the people who labored for her to have that privilege, no less. With the final credits rolling at last, we can finally switch the channel to something that’s “uplifting” for all of us.

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