Ellen DeGeneres dominated headlines in 1997 when she came out on the cover of TIME magazine with the simple and now-iconic cover: "Yep, I'm Gay." She was also one of the many trailblazers honored on the Out100 that year.
The comedian was barely three years into her sitcom, Ellen, when she finally confirmed what fans had long suspected. Perhaps just as impactful was the decision to have the titular character come to terms with her own sexuality in an episode that aired the same month. A lesbian actress playing a leading lesbian character on a network sitcom would still make waves today — and it certainly did in 1997, as well.
DeGeneres faced considerable backlash following her coming out. Sponsors pulled their advertisements, and there was a notable decline in ratings for her show, despite the coming out episode drawing more viewers than any other episode of the series and going on to win a GLAAD Media Award. Ellen was canceled the following year.
Still, the show wasn't alone in trying to push for more LGBTQ+ representation on TV at the time, although none managed to be quite as splashy. Beverly Hills, 90210, Roseanne, ER, and even Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman all featured episodes with overtly queer characters that year. Elton John appeared as himself in an episode of The Nanny, and Dateline featured a report on intersexuality.
Mainstream movies and television still have miles to go, even now, but we've come a long way since the '90s. And DeGeneres deserves a fair amount of credit for helping break those barriers down, even at the expense of her own career.
It wouldn't be until 2003 that she started to get back on her feet with The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Reinventing herself as a host and television personality rather than an actress, DeGeneres went on to appear on American Idol, Ellen's Game of Games, and hosted the Emmy Awards across multiple years.
Hosting a popular daytime talk show that ran for nearly 20 years meant a lesbian was regularly being broadcast into the homes of millions of Americans, adding to the way DeGeneres helped shape mainstream media and push society towards a place of acceptance, just by showing up as herself.
"Before this show, I had a lot of insecurity," DeGeneres told Out in 2016. "I wasn't sure if I was going to work again, and although I was out, I was still trying to alter myself — not dressing the way I wanted to dress or wearing my hair the way I wanted to. I slowly gained the confidence to be authentic, and what I've learned about other people is that they strive to be authentic, too. So whether they fully support me, love my lifestyle, or love that I'm married to a woman, I think they like that authenticity, and they're drawn to it."
