Most of us, at one point or another, have heard the name Ellen DeGeneres. Maybe you have seen her on her Emmy-winning talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, or maybe you have seen pictures of her at movie premieres locked arm and arm with her wife Portia De Rossi. For those who may have never seen her before, maybe you recognize her voice as Dory in Finding Nemo. Whether you know about Ellen DeGeneres or not, all of you should be aware of the controversy surrounding her and the JCPenney company.
As part of JCPenney’s new business model, the company officially hired Ellen DeGeneres, a former JCPenney sales clerk, on January 25, 2012. The company’s new spokesperson comes along with a new logo as well as new prices. When asked about why the company chose Ellen as its spokesperson, Ron Johnson, the company’s new CEO, said, “I think Ellen is someone we all trust.” The company president Michael Francis agreed with Ron Johnson and added, “[DeGeneres is] one of the most fun and vibrant people in entertainment today, with great warmth and a down-to-earth attitude.”
Unfortunately after announcing its new business plan, JCPenney received c
omplaints about its new spokesperson. One of the complaints came from One Million Moms, a group of Christian moms who have joined together to stand up against certain controversies in the media to protect their children and families. This anti-gay group posted on their website a new campaign to get rid of Ellen DeGeneres as the new spokesperson. “Funny that JCPenney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of its customers are traditional families,” the moms stated on their website onemillionmoms.com. “DeGeneres is not a true representation of the type of families who shop at the retailer.” The campaign consists of the moms asking everyone to call local JCPenney stores to complain about Ellen in hopes that the company will eventually back down and fire her.
In response to the One Million Moms campaign, GLAAD, a gay and lesbian rights group, started their own campaign called Stand Up for Ellen, according to eonline. The campaign has received over 25,000 signatures in support of Ellen DeGeneres. Even her nine million followers on Twitter have band together and created a hashtag #StandUpForEllen.
During her talk show on Wednesday, Ellen DeGeneres finally brought up the controversy by first telling the viewers about her new gig as the JCPenney spokesperson and talking about howthe One Million Moms group is not happy about it. She said, “And normally, I try not to pay attention to my haters—but this time I’d like to talk about it, because my haters are my motivators.” She continued with, “Here are the values I stand for. I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you’d want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values. That’s what I stand for.”
Instead of fighting back, Ellen has taken the high road and let her haters inspire her to be better. Many are inspired by Ellen’s strength to handle all of this controversy surrounding her sexual preference. Why are people like the One Million Moms so intolerant of homosexuality? Ellen has done a lot of great things for people on her talk show. She does not deserve to be treated with intolerance and disrespect. No one does. These women would do well to take the high road like Ellen has. Instead of the “traditional” values that the One Million Moms describe, intolerant individuals should, like Ellen, stand for honesty, equality, and kindness.