Betty DeGeneres is an American activist dedicated to LGBT rights. As the mother of Ellen and Vance DeGeneres, she became the first non-gay spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign's National Coming Out Project. Her advocacy also includes active membership in PFLAG. She gained significant public attention following her daughter Ellen's highly publicized coming out in 1997.
The mother of lesbian actress/comedian Ellen DeGeneres offers her own compassionate support and advice for gay men and lesbians and their family members in this account of her own struggle to accept her daughter
"Mom, I'm gay." With three little words, gay sons and daughters can change their parents' lives forever. Twenty years ago, during a walk on a Mississippi beach, Ellen DeGeneres spoke those simple, powerful words to her mother. That emotional moment eventually brought mother and daughter closer than ever, but it was not without a struggle. In Love, Ellen, Betty DeGeneres tells her story: the complicated path to acceptance and the deepening of her friendship with her daughter, the media's scrutiny of their family life, and the painful and often inspiring stories she's heard on the road as the first nongay spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign's National Coming Out Project. Insightful, universally touching, and uncommonly wise, Love, Ellen is a story of friendship between mother and daughter and a lesson in understanding for all parents and their children.