Famous Gay Couples Comedian and popular talk show host Ellen DeGeneres struggled for many years to come to grips with her sexual orientation before publicly coming out as a lesbian. As DeGeneres (2005) recalled, “To be 37 years old and be feeling this sense of shame, that nobody would like me if they found out I was gay, it was a pretty emotional thing to expose yourself to.” In 1997, she made television history when she “outed” herself and her character in her television series Ellen. But by 2008, Ellen’s marriage to long-time companion Portia deRossi, a few months after same-sex marriage became legal in California, was covered like any other celebrity wedding ceremony.

Pictured on the right are “power couple” Chris Hughes, one of Facebook’s founders and editor-in-chief of The New Republic, and his spouse, Sean Eldridge, an investor and political activist. Hughes (2011) says that “having a partner who has similar intensity in his days, a passion for work in the same way, it makes a difference to come home at night and have an intellectual partner.”

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