"She risked her entire life, and her career, in order to tell the truth," McKinnon said.
Mikelle StreetThough award shows can me incredibly teary moments as they are generally occasions of joy, every once in a while, a tribute just does you in. At the Golden Globes this year, Kate McKinnon gave us a deeply sentimental moment as she presented Ellen DeGeneres with the prestigious Carol Burnett Award.
"In 1997 when Ellen's sitcom was at the height of its popularity, I was in my mother's basement lifting weights in front of the mirror and thinking 'Am I gay?'" the SNL host said. "And, I was, and I still am. But that's a very scary thing to suddenly know about yourself." A beacon of light and support for the comedian at the time? DeGeneres coming out, first in Time magazine, then in an Oprah Winfrey Show appearance, and then on her sitcom Ellen in the famed "The Puppy Episode."
"She risked her entire life, and her career, in order to tell the truth," McKinnon said. "And she suffered greatly for it! Of course attitudes change, but only because brave people like Ellen jump into the fire to make them change. If I hadn't seen her on TV, I would have thought 'I could never be on TV, they don't let LGBTQ people on TV.' And more than that, I would have gone on thinking I was an alien and that maybe I didn't even have a right to be here." Talk about the importance of representation.
For her acceptance of the award, DeGeneres led in with quite a load of humor. But after all the jokes she got serious, and seem to, in ways, respond to what McKinnon had just revealed.
"Television inspired everything that I am today ," she said. "All I want to make people do is laugh, and make people feel good, and there is no greater feeling than when people say ... I have helped them through a difficult time."
Congratulations to Ellen DeGeneres.
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