News
Ellen Responds to Anti-Gay Campaign
Ellen DeGeneres has responded to the anti-gay group One Million Moms’ recent demands to have her fired as spokesperson for JC Penney.
DeGeneres addressed the matter on her show today, February 8, saying, "You all may know that I recently teamed up with JC Penney. I'm happy about it. JC Penny is happy about it. But there's a group called One Million Moms that isn't happy about it."
The organisation recently demanded that JC Penney stop using her as their spokeswoman due to the fact that she is gay. As they said in a statement on their website, "JC Penney is attempting to gain a new target market and in the process will lose customers with traditional values that have been faithful to them over all these years."
DeGeneres said on the show that she stands 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."
JC Penney stuck by their decision to keep DeGeneres and have received a lot of support from customers for doing so. Messages on the Facebook page for Million Moms said "Way to go JCPenney for not giving in to bullies. Stand your ground" and "Love Ellen and everything she stands for. I'm going to shop there more now!"
DeGeneres said that she was "proud and happy" with JC Penney's decision and that she usually doesn't talk about these things on the show "but I really want to thank everyone who is supporting me."