On Air

Both Ellen DeGeneres and Caitlyn Jenner are people who are well known in the celebrity world. Jenner has made the news quite a bit this year after she came out as a trans-gendered female. Before the change, she was known as Bruce Jenner. Bruce Jenner was an Olympic athlete who won the men’s decathlon back in 1976. She also appeared as Bruce on the television show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” alongside his ex-wife and their children. After she came out as a trans-gendered female, she was featured on the cover of a magazine, where she introduced herself as a female and showed off her female body. While many were disgusted over how heavily edited the photo was, many applauded her ability to be a voice for trans-gendered people everywhere.

Discussion With DeGeneres

Jenner appeared on DeGeneres’ talk show and opened up about her journey thus far as a trans-gendered woman. DeGeneres asked Jenner how she felt about the gay marriage community and about gay marriage, because Jenner had identified as a Republican in the past. DeGeneres said while being Republican isn’t a bad thing, many Republicans are against same-sex marriage and a lot of the other issues involving same-sex couples. Jenner admitted when gay marriage was first starting to become a political issue, she was against it. She said she was a traditionalist and blamed part of it on her older age (she is 65 years old). Jenner claimed she simply didn’t get it; she didn’t understand how a marriage could be between two women or two men since it had always been a man and a woman.

Change of Heart

Jenner went on to say as time went on, she started to change the way she thought about same-sex marriage. She said she never wants to be in the way of anyone’s happiness if someone wants to be married to someone of the same gender. DeGeneres and Jenner discussed the meaning and importance of the word marriage. Jenner said if it was that important to same-sex couples to use the word marriage to describe their union, then she could go with it.

Confusing Answer

Jenner’s answer to DeGeneres’ question about marriage equality was quite muddy. Many felt she did not give a straight answer about whether or not she supports same-sex marriage. DeGeneres and others like her found it interesting that she seemed to have at least a slight objection to gay marriage when she herself is in the process of going through a sex change. In fact, since Jenner is now a woman, her relationship with a woman would be considered same sex, so if she were to get married again, she herself would be part of a same-sex marriage.

DeGeneres’ Response

Because of how well known her trans-gendered journey has been this year, it came as a surprise to DeGeneres when Jenner said she did not necessarily support same-sex marriage. DeGeneres is openly gay and married to her longtime partner, Portia de Rossi. She has been a strong supporter of same-sex marriage rights and was delighted when the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was to be recognized and legal in all 50 states. Jenner’s revelation that she did not necessarily believe in that type of marriage was as much a surprise to DeGeneres as it was to many of the viewers in the audience and around the nation.

Importance of the Word Marriage

Like Jenner, many conservatives have wondered why they couldn’t simply call a same-sex union a civil union if it meant they got all of the same benefits as married couples.

• DeGeneres pointed out that she and others want equality; in order for something to be equal, it needs to be called the same word.
• She feels calling it something other than marriage would keep a divide between same-sex couples and married couples.

This is something that is felt by much of the LGBT community. The fact that DeGeneres was able to address this to a national audience will hopefully help spread that message.