Yep, I’m Gay
But first, she was on the cover of “Time” magazine with the words “Yep, I’m Gay” written across the top. A week later, Ellen’s character on her ABC sitcom, Ellen, also came out as gay, making her the first openly gay lead character on prime time TV.
It was 1997. Ellen and Oprah got together in 2017 to talk about how it had been 20 years since she came out. Oprah talked about how much hate mail she got. Oprah thought about how things have changed in the past 20 years and told Ellen, “You were the most courageous woman ever.” Responses were out of this world. Americans who don’t like gay rights were very angry. In 1998, her sitcom was taken off the air.