Ellen DeGeneres’s long-running talk show has wrapped and in the final episode, the comedian revealed when the show started she wasn’t allowed to say the word gay on air.
DeGeneres revealed that “Twenty-five years ago, they cancelled my sitcom because they didn’t want a lesbian to be in prime time once a week. So I said, ‘OK, I’ll be in daytime every day, how about that?’”.
DeGeneres then went on to reveal how much has changed since the beginning of her 19 season run.
News.com.au reported that DeGeneres said: “I couldn’t say ‘gay’ on the show. I was not allowed to say ‘gay.’
“I said it at home a lot. ‘What are we having for gay breakfast?’ Or ‘pass the gay salt.’ ‘Has anyone seen the gay remote?’ — things like that.
“I couldn’t say ‘we’ because that implied that I was with someone. Sure couldn’t say, wife. That’s because it wasn’t legal for gay people to get married. And now I say wife all the time.”
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DeGeneres’s final moments on the show were an incredible reminder of just how far we’ve come and how important representation is on screens.
Sure, DeGeneres’s final seasons were plagued by rumours of a toxic workplace, but we also can’t ignore how much DeGeneres has done for the LGBTIQ+ community.
There’s no denying that the show is the end of an era.
