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Indianapolis-- Betty DeGeneres, mother of openly gay actress Ellen DeGeneres, will speak at Butler University on Wednesday, March 26 at 7:30 p.m. in the Reilly Room of Atherton Union. The event is free and open to the public. DeGeneres will be discussing education, compassion, and justice for lesbians and gay men.
Thrust into the national spotlight when her daughter made history as she came out of the closet, DeGeneres quickly became one of the strongest and most visible advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights.
"We wanted to bring Mrs. DeGeneres to campus because as a mom, she's got a lot of things to say about acceptance of lesbians and gays that will be particularly meaningful for the largely-straight Butler community," said Kenneth DeGraff, Butler student and co-president of the Butler Alliance.
After her positive response to her daugther's public coming out, DeGeneres decided to become the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) National Coming Out spokesperson in 1997, and continues in that role to this day. As the HRC's National Coming Out spokesperson, DeGeneres has appeared on television public service announcements and has spoken throughout the country to promote honesty about being gay, or having a gay family member and supporting equal rights for gay people. She is also the author of two books: Love, Ellen: A Mother/Daughter Journey and Just a Mom.
The event is sponsored by the Butler Alliance, Out Word Bound Books, Butler's Office of Diversity Program, Human Rights Campaign-Indiana, REACH, Butler's Student Government Association, Butler's department of gender studies and Indiana Youth Group.
Founded in 1855, Butler University serves more than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students in five academic colleges: Business Administration, Education, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Pharmacy and Health Sciences and the Jordan College of Fine Arts. Butler University is consistently cited in such national college guides as US News & World Report, Kaplan/Newsweek and Barron's Best Buy in College Education.
