She was willing to put her career on the line to become one of the few female celebrities to come out as being lesbian. This essentially inspired many within the LBGT community to embrace their own individualities and face the world as gay individuals, despite the misunderstandings from the external world that may try to bring them down. Ellen has helped put LBGT issues in the mainstream with her influence and popularity. In a country that has seen so much controversy about LBGT rights, especially regarding marriage in California, Ellen really inspires people and also exposes others who are not gay to a greater understanding of the gay community. Ellen even went as far as to marry Portia de Rossi and publish her wedding video on "Oprah" "as part of a major campaign for gay true love and happiness," (Pizello 2010). It is through her real portrayal of her own life that she influences other LBGT individuals to stand up and demand a better status in today's contemporary society. Her influence will undoubtedly continue to grow. In...

As one of daytime TV's biggest star, Oprah Winfrey, just moved onto cable network programming Ellen is poised to become the next big sensation to millions of viewers each day. In fact, the research here states that she is "viewed as one of the most likely to benefit from Ms. Winfrey's move to cable," (Stelter 2010). Thus, Ellen has the chance to increase the scope of her influence, thus reaching out to more individuals who could definitely benefit from such a positive influence in the context of their own lives, despite never have even meeting her in person.
References

Pizzello, Chris. (2010). Ellen Degeneres news. New York Times. Web. http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/d/ellen_degeneres/index.html

Stelter, Brian. (2010). NBC commits to keeping 'Ellen' show. New York Times. Web. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E2D7113FF932A25751C0A9669D8B63&ref=ellendegeneres