Cut DeGeneres a Little Bit of Slack

Regarding Robert L. Newton’s “Earnest ‘Ellen’ Not Very Funny” (Counterpunch, March 16):

I confess I’m an “Ellen” loyalist--not just to the TV show but to the real person. My love affair with Ellen DeGeneres’ courage started with her interviews with Diane Sawyer and Oprah Winfrey and continued during the high point of her first three shows and forever afterward. I didn’t mind that friends and family members “worked through” their issues with “Ellen’s” sexuality and eventually were “OK” with it. Or that “Ellen’s” girlfriend had a teenage daughter that could deal with “it.” What a refreshing contrast to the steady diet of repudiation and demeaning remarks to which we gays and lesbians are usually treated.

I agree that some of the episodes were too earnest and not very funny. But others were very, very funny. In his article, Newton compared “Ellen” to “Seinfeld.” Despite the quirkiness of “Seinfeld’s” characters, “Seinfeld” works only because the characters are heterosexual.

There’s lots of sexual angst, but no sexual controversy. The network made “Ellen” put warnings on the show because two women kissed. Do you think they would have ever allowed her the “corrosive sink-or-swim amorality” of “Seinfeld”?

So I say, cut Ellen DeGeneres and “Ellen” some slack. She and it have dared to go where no one in TV has had the nerve to venture. Support her a little. Newton was right--no animals were harmed in the process. But many young people who desperately need a positive role model will be harmed if this show is canceled.

VIRGINIA URIBE, PhD

Founder, Project 10 support program for

gay and lesbian youth, L.A. Unified School District