Ellen Page Comes Out

[GM Franchise]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/15/showbiz/page-comes-out/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

(CNN) -- Hollywood actress Ellen Page, known for her role in the movie "Juno," announced she is gay, in a very public way.

Page broke the news during an emotional speech Friday in a crowded conference hall in Las Vegas, her publicist confirmed to CNN.

"I'm here today because I am gay. And because... maybe I can make a difference," Page told a crowd at an event called Time to THRIVE, a conference to promote issues of the gay community.

The Canadian star got a standing ovation during the speech.

"I am tired of hiding and I am tired of lying by omission," Page told the crowd. "I suffered for years, because I was scared to be out."

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Page, 26, spoke about football star Michael Sam, a man she called a "hero."

Sam, an All-American defensive lineman from the University of Missouri, also publicly revealed that he's gay this week.

Sam's announcement creates the possibility he'll be the first openly gay player drafted by the National Football League.

Page, who is set to star in an upcoming X-Men movie, said she had learned a lot from others who have publicly announced their sexual orientation.

"We deserve to experience love fully, equally, without shame and without compromise," she told the crowd.
Human Rights Campaign, an organizer of the conference, praised Page on Twitter.

"Congratulations, @EllenPage for taking the steps to live openly and come out as lesbian. #comingout," the organization tweeted.

[Mike Powers]

Good on her.

[Jon]

A sad day for Men, haha. But this is awesome. I'd love nothing more than a chain reaction to take place where celebrities begin to come out publicly, and in hopes that it becomes easier for others to do so as well.

[Cory]

Always hated this chick, shes from my town and was always at schools preaching her uber liberalism once she got famous from Juno. She broke down crying at one assembly because she feared that all the Bees in the world were going to die.....

but if its easier for her to live, good for ger.

[! JDM The Professional !]

Always hated this chick, shes from my town and was always at schools preaching her uber liberalism once she got famous from Juno. She broke down crying at one assembly because she feared that all the Bees in the world were going to die.....

but if its easier for her to live, good for ger.

To be fair if the bees were to go we would be fucked.

[Rob]

I feel like we're saying this every time someone comes out. Haven't most of us been saying it since Ellen DeGeneres came out like 20 years ago?

I'm starting to see Ian's thing here where he says can't we just accept it as normal and move on, rather than kick up a big fuss every time? Maybe I'm just moody because these people are stealing my attention...

[Kirk]

I agree with that. What's the big deal? No idea why she kept it quiet for so long. It's not much of a surprise and it's not as though she's the first actor to come out.

[Jennifer]

The problem is that it isn't considered to be normal by a lot of people nor is it considered equally in law in many places and many countries.

It shouldn't be a big deal to come out but the way society is balanced makes it a big deal, right now.

[Ian "Wolfie" Trumps]

Its the sort of thing which despite its positive influence just has me rolling my eyes. You cannot seek pure equality for anyone whether it be sexual orientation, creed, race, whatever if every five minutes we need to highlight it and be 'we' I mean the media who report on it and these celebrities who feel the need to expand on it all of a sudden...

All this including the NFL player coming out just smacks to me as unneccassary. The guy now going into the draft has affected his stock not because he is gay, but because it will be seen as pubilicity that a team looking to draft him doesnt need.

If we all didnt give a shit about this then the world would be a better place the more we feed into this as news worthy the more it makes an implication that it is 'different'. Is this giving closet homosexuals the confidence to come out? Or is it just saying 'hey if I do it means I am different'. I strongly feel it sends the later message which is totally wrong in my opinion.

[Triple B]

I feel like we're saying this every time someone comes out.

We start talking about bees?

[Jonny Worldbeater]

I'm kind of in two minds about this kinda thing.

On the one hand, it obviously takes a lot of courage to publicly admit something very personal about yourself, especially something that really still does have a stigma attached to it and isn't considered 'normal' despite all the breakthroughs that have been made over the years by people fighting the good fight for equal rights.

But on the other hand, why exactly is it anybody's business what another person does in their bedroom or who they do it with? I mean, can you imagine somebody holding a press conference to announce that they were straight? No. Because nobody cares if you're straight, it's just accepted and there's no need to highlight it.

I mean, the whole thing about treating people equally is that there's no exceptions. You treat one person the same as another regardless of their gender, race, religion, nationality, sexual preference or whatever. People are just people, and nobody should be judged for good or bad by something they have no control over.

That's just my two cents anyway.

Also, I can't help but be reminded of this:

Flanders gay

[Dorling]

People that say it should be no big deal and that we should just shrug it off all the time are being naive.

It will continue to be a big deal while there are countries in the world (including developed, educated countries) where you can be bullied, intimidated, arrested and even murdered for being gay. It would be easy for someone like me to say 'what's the big deal?' because I'm a white, heterosexual male. I can go pretty much anywhere in the world without the fear of oppression or violence because of something that is beyond my control.

Some celebrities will go through life never telling the public they are gay and that's fine, but someone letting people know is not a negative thing and it should not be treated as such. Bottom line, aside from a few people on here, most of us have no position to comment because we have no idea what it's like.

I applaud her for coming out, because as with the NFL guy, lots of bigoted, short sighted, awful human beings around the world will now judge her and to use the NFL analogy again, her stock will likely plummet.

[Kirk]

I'm sorry for being a white hetrosexual male. I'll make sure not to have an opinion about anything in the future.

[Jennifer]

Yeah you're kind of missing the point of Dorling's post there Kirk.

[Justin]

What irritates me is that somebody coming out gay gets more press than a young man being killed by someone shooting at his car because the person thought his music was too loud.  Not to mention he was just awarded a mistrial despite running after the car and shooting.  And then he goes home afterwards to drink as if it was just a normal day.