PETA recently named talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres and style guru Tim Gunn our 2009 Woman of the Year and Man of the Year. It is just a coincidence that both Ellen and Tim are gay. Or is it?
Leaders of social justice movements have historically recognized that the liberation of one oppressed group is linked to the liberation of other groups. Perhaps, as openly gay Americans, having the courage to speak out about what they think and feel and what they believe regarding respect for all beings – animals included – is just part of who Tim and Ellen are.
Let's start with Ellen. I've always thought that Ellen DeGeneres was funny, but my admiration for her has grown over the years.
The first time I remember thinking "she has an animal consciousness" was when I heard her standup routine, more than a decade ago, about going to someone's house and seeing a stuffed deer's head on the wall. Ellen said she asked why it was there and was told, "Because I love animals."
She gave one of those Ellen looks and said, "Well, I love my mother but I carry her photograph in my wallet."
The second time that I knew she was thinking about what animals go through was when I heard her talk about catch-and-release fishing. Ellen joked about seeing some pedestrians while she was driving and how she had deliberately mowed them down, then watched them get to their feet, rolled down her window and yelled, "OK, you can go now. Just wanted to see if I could hit you!"
The plight of animals – those fish who lose their protective coating and die for real when anglers pull them out of the water for "fun," and the deer who have the audacity to stand on the lawn of the house that now occupies their former grazing grounds, and get shot for doing so – was burrowing into her brain.
Luckily, Ellen has found a life partner who shares her compassion, and shortly before they married, she and Portia De Rossi took another leap: They tossed all that was stolen from animals out of their fridge and kitchen cabinets and went vegan. Their wedding had a vegan menu to die for, but no animals died in the making of it. Some of the recipes are available for everyone to try in Chef Tal Ronnen's New York Times best-selling cookbook, The Conscious Cook .
In 2009, Ellen outdid herself, making sure that what she had learned about the abysmal suffering of pigs and chickens on factory farms was passed on to her audience. On her show, she made vegan pizza with Chef Wolfgang Puck, spoke with Dr. Neal Barnard, head of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, about the health benefits of a vegan diet, and just in time for Thanksgiving, "talked turkey" about the everyday abuse of animals in the meat industry with Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Eating Animals.
Then there is the gallant, gorgeous Tim. So tall and self-possessed, he is the man those straight girls like me might say "Oh, no!" about when they hear that he is off limits. Earlier this year, the guru of good taste narrated PETA's video Fashion Victims , which exposes the cruelty of the fur trade and details how pythons used for belts and bags are sometimes nailed to trees and skinned alive – and the media have been buzzing ever since. He points out that there is an alternative to every unkind "material," from fake snake to mock croc and wonderful natural fibers and synthetics. As for fur, Tim recently told the Los Angeles Times, "Wearing fur is like wearing a big sign reading, 'I'm in favor of inflicting cruelty and pain on animals as a fashion statement.' Unspeakable torture is inflicted on dogs, cats, bunnies, raccoons, foxes, minks, and myriad trapped, helpless creatures in the name of fashion – yes, dogs and cats."
While he was chair of the prestigious fashion design department at Parsons The New School for Design, Tim started a program to allow PETA to give presentations to students so that they could see for themselves what happens to all manner of animals who are frightened, tormented, abused and killed for their skins.
And thanks to Tim, fur challenges are noticeably absent from Project Runway – and there's zero fur at Liz Claiborne, where he is now chief creative officer.
Members of the gay community have fought long and hard to overcome violence, humiliation, and prejudice directed at them just because they were "different." Isn't it time to fight against the same prejudices that allow animals to be treated cruelly for something as frivolous as a parka collar or a pair of shoes?
Animals' lives are as important to them as our lives are to us, yet all too often their feelings are entirely discounted, even though they experience the same emotions: fear, love, grief, joy and pain that we do. Ellen DeGeneres and Tim Gunn are helping to change hearts and minds. By speaking up for the defenseless and rejecting cruelty in favor of kindness, they are showing that one person really can make a difference in the world. And they are gently reminding us that we can, and should, all stand up against injustice, regardless of the race of the victim, regardless of gender or sexual orientation – and regardless of species.
Ingrid E. Newkirk is author of One Can Make a Difference and the president and founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, 501 Front Street, Norfolk, VA 23510; http://www.PETA.org. Her latest book is The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights.