Ellen DeGeneres. (Steve Granitz/WireImage)
In what might be the purest and most wholesome thing to occur during this well and truly cursed year, a closeted teen was gifted Ellen DeGeneres merchandise by her parents to let her know “it’s OK to be lesbian.”
Sophie opened up her presents Friday (25 December) to find her parents had bought her The Ellen DeGeneres Show wares, which included a festive-themed t-shirt and a pair of socks threaded with the words “be kind” on them.
Yes, what you’re feeling right now is called serotonin. You have just been reunited with it. It has been a while.
“What the f**k?” the 19-year-old tweeted. “My parents got me Ellen merch because I’m a lesbian?”
WHAT THE FUCK??? MY PARENTS GOT ME ELLEN MERCH BC IM A LESBIAN????? pic.twitter.com/tmU6is21vB
— sophie (@lovedswifts) December 25, 2020
As the tweet immediately went viral – drawing more than 676,000 likes and 42,600 retweets at the time of writing – she added: “I’m not out of the closet and they got me this because they know I haven’t said anything.”
‘Ellen DeGeneres is probably the only lesbian they know’, says gay teen whose parents bought her Ellen Show merch
“I was really shocked when I opened the Ellen merch because I’m not an Ellen fan,” Sophie told PinkNews.
“So it was very unexpected. I laughed really hard to myself because I realised it was almost like a bridge to be like ‘it’s okay to be a lesbian’.
“It’s just funny to me because I also realised Ellen is probably the only lesbian they know.”
Thousands of LGBT+ Twitter users shared their own stories of supportive parents and guardians buying them stereotypically queer presents that have the same energy as the mum from Mean Girls, while others joked that buying a lesbian Ellen merch is both aggressively gay and relentlessly homophobic all at the same time.
This is like if someone went “oh you’re straight?” and then got you a bunch of Joe Rogan memorabilia https://t.co/3Arj2buMWB
— RBPS SHIN (@BeerStix) December 25, 2020
This is the funniest thing you can get any lgbtq person https://t.co/nJCYmeRXm7
— KF (@ItsAll_Bullshit) December 25, 2020
WHAT THE FUCK??? MY PARENTS GOT ME BONES BECAUSE IM A SKELETON? https://t.co/fgfkFsoSQj pic.twitter.com/RccuE3pitg
— The Pirate Skeleton King (@skeleking5) December 25, 2020
“What’s something that ISN’T homophobic but FEELS homophobic?” https://t.co/QgfrTZhKDw
— m 🍾 (@coldyay) December 25, 2020
Same energy with my mom getting me rupaul merch cause I’m gay lmaooo https://t.co/r1tn6ROTIr
— ekard (@sparks379) December 26, 2020
Sophie added that her tweet has received a laundry bag of reactions and didn’t even expect her tweet to get blasted across peoples’ timelines. “I’ve received a lot of support, but also a lot of hate in my DMs from random trolls,” she said.
“I assume that’s what happens if anything goes viral so I just try to ignore the negative messages and appreciate those who are being nice and supporting me.”