"Already winning hearts and mind with her daytime TV talk show, Ellen DeGeneres is now winning over a whole new Middle America audience on American Idol," writes Jennifer Vanasco. "American Idol is a show everyone watches — young, old, from Red States and Blue. It is a throwback, almost, to the days of television when families would gather around a television set and watch enriching programming together. And one of its big draws these days is a lesbian. Ellen is America’s sweetheart of the moment — funny, down to earth, a pretty, sparkly woman whom everyone can relate to. And the extraordinary thing is that her gayness doesn’t get in the way of that or hide it — instead, she makes being gay seem to be the absolutely normal thing that it is. And an icon of Gay Normal is important. All too often — still — anti-gay conservatives point to people on the edges of our community as being representative of all gays and lesbians." READ MORE