Kate McKinnon's Tribute to Ellen DeGeneres - 2020 Golden Globes
Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon presented Ellen DeGeneres with the Carol Burnett Award to Ellen DeGeneres at the Golden Globes Awards ceremony and got choked up expressing how much she meant to her as a young lesbian growing up and being able to see representation onscreen.
McKinnon spoke about how in 1997, when Ellen came put on her self-titled sitcom, at the height of its popularity, she thought to herself, "Am I gay?" McKinnon added, "I was, and I still am." The audience broke in applause, and McKinnon smiled obviously pleased to be able to share this personal statement with the crowd and Ellen.
She added, "that's a very scary thing to suddenly know about yourself. It's sort of like doing 23andMe and discovering that you have alien DNA."
"The only thing that made it less scary was seeing Ellen on TV," McKinnon continued. "She risked her entire life and her entire career in order to tell the truth, 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. And if I hadn't seen her on TV, I would've thought 'I could never be on TV. They don't let LGBTQ people on TV.' And more than that, I would've gone on thinking that I was an alien and that I maybe didn't even have a right to be here."
She embraced Ellen in a hug when she came up to get the award, and you could see that Ellen really felt it. We did too!
We loved her tribute to Ellen and were so glad she shared this in public.
And who knows, maybe next year McKinnon will host the Golden Globes. Or Ellen. Or both of them!