Preloading

Oprah's Amazing Response in Support of Gay Rights

Aired on 04/15/1997 | CC tv-pg
In 1997, Ellen DeGeneres stunned the world and changed TV forever when her character, Ellen Morgan, came out as gay on the sitcom Ellen. Ellen herself had come out just two weeks earlier with a Time magazine cover story featuring the words "Yep, I'm Gay."

Oprah played a role on the seminal episode and interviewed the actress on The Oprah Winfrey Show shortly after she came out. It was one of Oprah's most talked-about episodes ever—and not all viewers were happy about it. Later that year, on a follow-up episode called "Letters to Oprah," a woman stood up to argue that Oprah, as a Christian, was contradicting her religion by supporting Ellen.

"Well, I have a different view of 'Christian' than you do," Oprah said to her. "The God I serve doesn't care whether you're tall or short, or whether you were born black or Asian or gay."

Watch as Oprah delivers a powerful message to anyone whose religious sensibilities are deeply offended by the acceptance (or even tolerance) of homosexuality as a valid sexual orientation.