In accepting the “Choice Comedian”
award at the Teen Choice Awards on Sunday, openly gay Ellen DeGeneres
gave a moving speech about acceptance.
“I wanna say also it feels good to be
chosen but there was a time in my life that I was not chosen,”
DeGeneres said. “I was the opposite of chosen because I was
different. And I think I wanna make sure that everyone knows that
what makes you different right now, makes you stand out later in
life.”
“So you should be proud of being
different, proud of who you are. … The most important thing I wanna
say is just really embrace who you are, because being unique is very,
very important and fitting in is not all that matters. It's being
unique and being who you are.”
After coming out gay in 1997, ratings
on her sitcom, Ellen, plummeted and ABC canceled the show.
She's said in previous interviews that she turned things around by
convincing Hollywood that she was “not just gay” but “a funny
woman who happens to be gay.”
DeGeneres and her wife, actress Portia
de Rossi, on Sunday celebrated their seventh anniversary. De Rossi
was in the audience Sunday to offer her support.