Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is finally responding to an anti-LGBT rights group that called on JC Penney to fire her as their spokesperson because she is a lesbian.
In a taping of the “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” which will air on Wednesday, DeGeneres used the opportunity of California's same sex marriage ban being declared unconstitutional to pivot to the self-described "conservative, pro-family" group "One Million Moms."
"Normally, I try not to pay attention to my haters," she said. "But this time, I'd like to talk about it because my haters are my motivators."
"This organization doesn't think that I should be the spokesperson because I'm gay. For those of you just tuning in for the first time, it's true. I'm gay. I hope you were sitting down," the TV host joked.
"So, they wanted to get me fired and I am proud and happy to say that JC Penny stuck by their decision to make me their spokesperson. It's great news for me because I need some new crew socks. I'm really going to clean up with this discount."
After JC Penny failed to back down last week, "One Million Moms" released a statement: "By jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon, JC Penney is attempting to gain a new target market and in the process will lose customers with traditional values that have been faithful to them over all these years."
"First of all, being gay or pro-gay is not a bandwagon," DeGeneres explained to her audience. "You don't get a free ride anywhere, there's no music and occasionally we will sing 'We Are Family,' but that's about it."
She noted that many of the comments on the "One Million Moms" Facebook page were actually supportive of JC Penny's decision.
"For a group that calls themselves 'One Million Moms,' they only have 40,000 members on their page. So, they are rounding to the nearest million and I get that," DeGeneres said.
"I usually don't talk about stuff like this on my show," she confessed. "But I really want to thank everyone who is supporting me, and if you don't know me very well, if you're just watching for the first time or maybe you are just getting to know me, I want to be clear. Here are the values that I stand for: I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values. That's what I stand for."
"Oh, also I believe in dance."
