December 4, 2009 - 1:00am
On Dec. 4, the Australian actress Portia de Rossi, wife of Ellen DeGeneres, appeared on both ABC's “Good Morning America” and “The View” to promote her ABC sitcom 'Better off Ted” … well, supposedly. In reality, ABC simply offered de Rossi a soapbox to rant about gay rights.
During his interview with de Rossi, GMA correspondent Bill Weir called DeGeneres and de Rossi a “beautiful couple” and gushed, “Every time we see you two together the affection is still so obvious.”
Weir then asked de Rossi a long-winded question about legalizing gay marriage, which included a prophecy of his own.
“And you're a testament for this sort of thing,” Weir began, “and – I don't want to get too political on you but there probably will be a day when this is not a novelty – but when you see sort of the votes that happen – some setbacks politically – how do you think about that in your house?”
De Rossi replied that it's “disappointing” because “the whole idea of being American is that you have the freedom and you have the equality.” She also added that Americans need to “stay focused on what the issue really is. And it's a civil rights issue. It's not a religious issue or a moral issue.” She ended by saying, “I think that hopefully we'll get there soon.”
“Well, until then,” Weir sympathized, “we wish you nothing but the best in your marriage.”
De Rossi also was a guest that same day on ABC's “The View” to again promote the new season of her sitcom – but yet again her interview revolved around gay rights. In fact, the interview, which lasted 7 min and 6 sec, only discussed her sitcom for 1 min and 6 sec. The rest of the time was allotted to de Rossi explaining how “very, very afraid” she felt before coming out of the closet.
“It took me quite a while [to come out],” de Rossi said, “because, you know, I was one of those actresses who was very afraid my whole career would be over.”
De Rossi also said that Proposition 8 is “horrible” because “many gay people who have always wanted to be married, unless they were with their perfect lifetime partner within those few months that it was legal, they don't have the option to be married anymore.” She called it “un-American” that “the majority can get to vote on the rights of the minority.”
Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar were agreeing so incessantly with the actress that they looked like bobble head dolls and sounded like broken records.
De Rossi explained that she fights for gay rights because “you have to be married to know how different it is than just being together with someone.”
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