Ellen DeGeneres, JC Penney CEO Address JC Penney Controversy

USMagazine, Thursday, February 9, 2012, 11:25am (PST)

In the midst of the conservative One Million Moms group bashing department store JC Penney for making her their new spokesmodel, Ellen DeGeneres continues to be a role model for diversity and equality everywhere.

"Normally I try not to pay attention to my haters, but this time I'd like to talk about it because my haters are my motivators," she said on her show, Ellen, Wednesday.

"This organization doesn't think I should be the spokesperson because I'm gay. For those of you who are just tuning in for the first time, it's true. I'm gay," she joked. "I hope you were sitting down. I hate to break it to you this way but anyway."

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On their Facebook page, the One Million Moms posted that JC Penney was "jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon" and that "the majority of JC Penney shoppers will be offended and choose to no longer shop there."

"First of all, being gay or pro-gay isn't a bandwagon. You don't get a free ride anywhere. There's no music. And occasionally we'll sing 'We Are Family' but that's about it," she cracked.

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Coming to the 54-year-old's side, Ron Johnson, JC Penney's CEO, gave his statement, supporting both DeGeneres as the company's celeb spokesperson and their stance on the protests.

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"We stand squarely behind Ellen as our spokesperson and that's a great thing, because she shares the same values that we do in our company," Johnson said on CBS This Morning. "Our company was founded 110 years ago on The Golden Rule, which is about treating people fair and square, just like you would like to be treated yourself. And we think Ellen represents the values of our company and the values that we share."

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