Summary
THE ADVOCATE - Celebrity sexual minorities - Cover story
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40 Heroes.
When we asked you to sift through a list of 100 notable politicians, artists, activists, and thinkers to choose 40 of your favorite gay heroes, we knew it wouldn't be easy. Our criteria: A hero had to be entirely out. And more than just being supremely talented or superbly competent, he or she had to have contributed significantly to our LGBT lives. Yet, even with the limits, picking just 40 hardly seemed possible. Bravo, Advocate readers. Here are your best and brightest ...
1 Ellen DeGeneres Yep, she's your #1 hero. Ten years after she outed herself-and her sitcom character--Ellen DeGeneres is on top of the world. She's happily partnered. She's wealthy. She's hosted the Oscars. And five days a week, she shows millions of straight TV fans that being gay is no big deal. What other LGBT figure of the Past 40 years-has made a more spectacular mark on the world? But that certainly isn't the only reason Advocate readers voted her our biggest hero of the past 40 years. DeGeneres also exemplifies the classic hero's journey of mythology--a call to adventure, followed by a road of trials, and then a triumphant return to ordinary life. We love tales of people who take big risks, go through hard times, then brush themselves off and emerge better and brighter than ever. And that's Ellen for you. In 1997, at age 39, she just couldn't breathe in the closet anymore, so she took a big gulp of fresh air and acknowledged what everyone already suspected: She likes girls. Television stars just didn't admit such things then. As newly out T.R. Knight said when he was a guest on Ellen's show a decade later, "It just made all the difference.... It meant so much." She was a pioneer, and pioneers make things a little less scary for everyone following in their paths. Ellen's own path turned rocky after the brilliant "Puppy Episode," in which her...See the full content of this document
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