Ellen DeGeneres, Hollywood React to Supreme Court Decision to Rule on Same-Sex Marriage

Social media also offered an outpouring of support for former NFLer Michael Sam, who announced his engagement on Friday

Same Sex marriage, Ellen DeGeneres insert

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to rule on marriage equality, much to the relief of many Hollywood notables including Ellen DeGeneres.

The TV host responded to the news from her seat on a Television Critics Association panel in Pasadena, California, which she attended to promote the upcoming NBC series “One Big Happy.”

“It’s about time,” she told TheWrap and other gathered journalists. “The thing that changed the civil rights movement was when white people got involved and started marching. We need everyone on our side. We’re kind of trying to do this march and we need people that believe in equality and believe in fairness and love. If we have people that will join us and give us that, which is only fair to have the same rights as everybody else, then it’s a wonderful world.”

The Supreme Court justices have agreed to hear consolidated arguments from four different cases — involving Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee — in April, and then issue a ruling before the term ends in June.

DeGeneres isn’t the only Hollywood figure to react to the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the cases.

One same-sex couple celebrating timing the announcement with laser-precision? Out football player Michael Sam, who proposed to his boyfriend, Vito Cammisano.

“Thank you for saying yes,” Sam tweeted. An attached photo sees Sam on bended knee popping the question at Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Basilica.

“One Big Happy” focuses on Lizzy (Elisha Cuthbert), a lesbian who decides to conceive a child with the assistance of her straight friend Luke. DeGeneres and her company A Very Good Prods. are producing the series, which is written by Liz Feldman.

On Friday’s panel DeGeneres explained how the new series differs from “Ellen,” her groundbreaking ABC sitcom from the 1990s. “We’re setting out with a lesbian as a central character, so it’s not a surprise … so nobody’s going to freak out, versus then, when it freaked out everybody — because nobody had a clue I was gay,” she said.

 

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