The Tale of Two Ellens

by Danielle Mc Mahon

This weekend the media went into frenzy mode as Ellen Page spoke at a human rights conference for LGBT teens in Las Vegas. The petite Canadian actress is best known for her Oscar-nominated role in the alternative movie 'Juno', which tells the tale of teenage pregnancy and slightly odd love.
Those of you who have gaydar (an ability to tell who its gay or not, yes it really does exist) will not have been surprised by her speech at the weekend.
She spoke for around eight minutes about how difficult it is to be who you really are in today's society, not only if you are gay but if you do not fit the stereotypes which have been set by the media.
It is easy to see how we all try to be more like the media-prescribed norm, women must be feminine, men must be masculine and if you do not fit into these categories you are branded weird! Page spoke of how she had been criticised by the press for her choice of gym clothing, she said she wore the clothes she liked to be comfortable not to keep the media happy.
Around five minutes into her speech Page started her revelation by saying:
' I am here because I am gay. And because...Maybe I can make a difference.'
Her announcement was met with cheers of support as the crowd showed their gratitude, another celebrity standing up and saying that not fitting into the media mould of normal is okay.
She was rather emotional during the last part of her speech, I imagine because it was a huge relief for her to finally tell the world what she had known for years, what she had been trying to keep a secret, by what she described as omission.
If you search for Ellen Page on the internet today the headlines, news and pictures are all about her coming out. I find this quite sad. She stood in front of world, effectively, and shared a very important part of herself. She is hoping to help make a difference, but at what cost? Like so many other gay celebrities, every piece that is written about her from now on will categorise her as being gay or will make some reference to her coming out speech. Is this what making a difference looks like now? I feel sometimes that this 'gay reference' in the media carries with it a bad vibe. They do not write about straight celebrities and categorise them according to their sexual orientation. So why should celebrities who are gay be any different?
I am a huge fan of another Ellen who also came out very publicly in a different era, the Nineties.
Ellen DeGeneres has perhaps become the most famous gay figures of our time. She came out in the late Nineties and her coming out was not received very well. Her shows ratings at that time plummeted and she disappeared from the public eye for quite some time. The newspapers and magazines where full of awful headlines and articles about her lifestyle and she felt the need to step back from her career for a period of time.
She is now hosting one of the most successful talk shows on American TV, she is a Covergirl and she is flying the flag for marriage equality having married her wife, Portia de Rossi, in 2008.
These women, like so many other celebrities are flying the flag for the gay community across the globe, but will the media ever let them make the difference they are seeking to make?
A difference our society needs.
When will the world wake up to the fact that supporting gay rights will not make the world gay.
When will we be able to break the mould and stand together as one, as equals in society.

Ellen Page speaking at LGBT conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWIaYZEHOIg