5 and Thriving: Our Fifth Year In Review
It seems the public embraces the real Ellen DeGeneres more than her on-screen gay character on Ellen in the mid ‘90s. Since the show’s cancellation, and her subsequent idle career years, the comedian has sprung back into the world of celebrity at the top of the ranks—literally. At 49, Ellen has made Forbes magazine’s 2007 list of The Richest 20 Women in Entertainment. Number 17 to be exact, sandwiched between Gisele Bündchen and Nicole Kidman (and that’s a nice place to be).
With the success of her talk show, The Ellen Degeneres Show, which is in its fourth season and has nabbed 15 Emmys, Ellen’s resilience earned her the People’s Choice Award this year for Favorite Talk Show Host. In an interview with W magazine in February, Ellen said, “I want the show to reach people and to be something positive. Because the world is full of a lot of fear and a lot of negativity, and a lot of judgment. I just think people need to start shifting into joy and happiness.”
That uplifting spirit and positive energy may have been what finally earned her the gig of her dreams: hosting the 79th Annual Academy Awards. Though it would be tough to follow the acts of Billy Crystal (eight-time host), Ellen’s clean, wide-appealing humor was just what the Oscars needed. It’s what we all need. And that’s why we love her. It certainly has been Ellen’s year.
Rosie came back into view, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” took center stage, Barack and Hillary stepped up to the presidential plate. NYC lost the Roxy and CBGBs, Britney lost her long locks, our community lost a dear activist, Barbara Gittings. And Ellen became the most visible, successful lesbian in the universe. A look back at the events that shaped GO’s world in the past year.
FOUND IN TRANSLATION
Across the globe, legislation for the rights of same-sex couples has been gaining momentum. In South Africa, the highest court legalized same-sex unions in November, making it the first African nation to do so. That same month, in a ruling that infuriated the ultra-Orthodox community there, Israel’s supreme court ordered the government to recognize same-sex marriages performed abroad. In January, a lesbian couple registered as Mexico’s first same-sex union in the state of Coahuila, the first of 31 states in Mexico to legally recognize such unions. A month later, two Roman Catholic countries made surprising advances: Colombia’s Constitutional Court granted gay couples living together for more than two years the same inheritance guarantees as heterosexuals in common law marriages. Similarly, Italy’s cabinet approved rights for unwed couples, including gay ones, in which they would be guaranteed inheriting property and receiving a deceased partner’s pension. This bill is still waiting approval from Italy’s parliament. Eastern Europe didn’t fare as well, when Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov barred the city’s “satanic” Pride parade in May, for what he claims were security reasons. His police force then failed to protect the LGBT people who participated despite the ban and were attacked by onlookers. In July, city authorities in Riga, Latvia, denied LGBT organizations’ request for a permit for a Pride festival march. Pictured: a gay rights demonstration in Rome.
