Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
WhenEllen DeGeneresmade the groundbreaking decision to come out 21 years ago, she faced her fair share of hate.
The talk show host opened up toAdweekabout having her character on ABC’s hit sitcomEllenannounce that she was gay in 1997, shortly after the comedian appeared onTimewith the cover line, “Yep, I’m Gay.”
“When I came out, I had death threats and there was a bomb threat, but they misjudged the time of the taping,” she said. “We had already finished, and thank God.”
A year after coming out, ABC canceled the sitcom — something DeGeneres said left her feeling “blindsided.”
“I knew there would be people that didn’t like it, but I didn’t realize my show would be canceled,” she said. “I just thought, ‘It’s going to be interesting.’ “
“It was the hardest thing that I ever had to do in my life,” she has said. “I would not change one moment of it because it led me to be exactly where I am today.”
“It’s the greatest gift you could give yourself,” she captioned the sweet snap. She added the hashtag #NationalComingOutDay.
The couple started dating in December 2004 while de Rossi was on the Fox sitcomArrested Development.
In 2008, DeGeneres announced that she was planning on marrying de Rossi after news broke that the California Supreme Court would allow same-sex marriages.
source: people.com
