Which celebs?

Oh, you might have heard of them – Julia Roberts, for instance. Scarlett Johansson. Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi. Robert De Niro. Gavin Newsom. RuPaul. Melissa Etheridge. And others.

Here are two:

On the left, Milo Ventimiglia; on the rights, Cheyenne Jackson.

The images, commissioned by the grassroots LGBT organization FAIR and the Hollywood networking organization HOMOtracker , will be autioned off online Nov. 10 to Dec. 9. Proceeds will benefit grassroots orgs fighting for marriage equality in California and across the country.

A kickoff event is Thursday, Nov. 12 in West Hollywood.

Said Shepard Fairey:

“I am proud to contribute the Defend Equality Love Unites image to the fight for marriage equality, and commend FAIR for putting this image to good use. This event, and the project behind it, are great examples of innovative advocacy and activism. This project gives a united platform for so many notable voices to bring greater awareness to this movement.”

And now her wife Potria de Rossi has joined in. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel last week meant to promote her new show “Better Off Ted,” de Rossi never really got around to talking about her career. What she did get around to talking about was life with Ellen, traveling with Ellen, and introducing a farcical PSA that she shot, apologizing to Yes on Prop 8 protesters who were inconvenienced by her marriage to Ellen:

The PSA is short, but sharp, and certainly gets Portia’s point across. Here’s hoping she keeps up her vocal activism during the rest of her “Better off Ted” press tour.

I’ve been feeling pretty cynical of late. Obama forms council on women and girls? I was tempted to dismiss it as ceremonial. The administration indicates it will sign on to the UN Declaration calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality? Eh, what’s the actual impact of an inherently toothless declaration?

Real change, I’ve been considering, will only come when we’re able to change real minds and hearts.

It’s perhaps not entirely shocking, then, that my cynicism lifted briefly when I saw the clips of Ellen DeGeneres interviewing her wife Portia  de Rossi from Monday’s episode of The Ellen Degeneres Show. Ellen Tarlin at Slate wrote a post that partly explains why I feel so positive about Ellen’s interview:

“But what I am impressed by most is how forthright she is about her sexual orientation, despite the fact that she has a large, broad, national, daytime network audience that certainly must include more than just a few homophobes. And Ellen’s likability must do much to warm their hearts.

She routinely mentions her wife, Portia de Rossi, their recent marriage, and throws the details of their lives together into her jokes regularly.

Maybe I am naive, but I think this is how our country will finally change: When people who are anti-gay finally learn that someone they already know and love is gay, and they want every happiness for their loved one that they are entitled to. Or even better, when they are willing to let someone who they know is gay into their lives, despite their homosexuality.”

How many minds were changed after that interview aired? Maybe a few, but maybe none. How many minds are changed every year that Ellen spends hundreds of hours during hundreds of shows referencing her wife Portia, their wedding, their house, their pets? Countless.

I’m not sure the importance of Ellen being herself on national television every day can be overstated. The issue of gay marriage is, like a lot of issues important to the LGBT community, an emotional one for most Americans. People’s views are driven by fear, of course, but also by love.

Polls show time and again that the most important factor in predicting a person’s opinion on gay rights is if that person knows a gay person. That kind of personal interaction—which is really a feeling of investment—is more important than political affiliation, region, age, religion, or anything else.

In other words, no one wants to discriminate against the people they love.

For the millions of viewers who spend every afternoon inviting Ellen into their homes, her very matter-of-fact attitude toward her sexuality is immensely powerful and influential. The women and men that watch her show every day know about every aspect of her life, she’s as real to them as their friends or neighbors.  If they feel that connection with her, and are informed about the challenges she faces as a gay woman with unequal rights, they’ll be swayed. Slowly, perhaps, but eventually. After all, who could possibly vote to divorce Ellen?

So thanks, Ellen, for your courage, your commitment, and for sharing your beautiful family with the world.

[H/T Jezebel]

Newlywed Portia de Rossi, 35, will be returning to prime time television early next year in Better Off Ted, one of five pilots picked up by ABC for its midseason lineup.

The satirical office comedy revolves around a successful but morally conscious man, Ted (played by Jay Harrington), who runs a research and development department at a morally questionable corporation, Veridian Technologies. Here’s how the press release describes it:

No achievement is too far fetched and no invention too unorthodox for Veridian. Need a suicidal turkey? Done. Need a metal that is hard as steel but bounces — and is edible? Done and done. Ted loves his seemingly perfect job; he loves his superhuman boss, Veronica, and colleagues Lem, Phil and Linda, but he’s starting to take a closer look at the company’s extremely questionable practices … especially when they try to cryogenically freeze one of Ted’s scientists for testing purposes.

De Rossi plays "superhuman boss" Veronica.

The comedy also stars Andrea Anders, Jonathan Slavin, and Malcolm Barrett. ABC has yet to announce when the series will debut on its 2008-2009 schedule.

De Rossi, who married Ellen DeGeneres last week, made her first cinematic appearance in the movie Sirens (1994). But it was her role as icy lawyer Nelle Porter on Ally McBeal from 1998-2002 that catapulted her to fame. She went on to co-star in the low-rated but critically acclaimed Fox comedy Arrested Development from 2003-2006, and she most recently guest-starred as a lesbian on the FX drama Nip/Tuck.

America’s current reigning celebrity lesbian couple were officially — and legally — married this weekend.

“Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi were married tonight in an intimate ceremony at their home in Los Angeles,” their spokesperson told People magazine late Saturday.

De Rossi, 35, wore a backless, light pink dress, and DeGeneres, 50, wore pants, a button-up shirt and vest — all in white, according to US magazine. Both outfits were designed by Zac Posen.

The private ceremony was attended by 19 guests, including DeGeneres’s mom Betty and de Rossi’s mother Margaret Rogers (who flew in from Australia for the occasion). The pair reportedly spent the afternoon leading up to the ceremony laughing and walking “all over the lawn together holding hands and posing,” before exchanging handwritten vows.

Ellen announced her engagement to Portia on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May to a standing ovation from the live studio audience, the day after the California Supreme Court struck down a ban on gay marriage by ruling it unconstitutional.

Backstage after winning another Emmy for her talk show a few weeks later, Ellen answered reporters questions about the engagement, joking, “Planning a wedding is very stressful. It’s crazy. My gardener is now invited.”

She and Portia also showed off Portia’s new pink diamond engagement ring at the Emmys.

But DeGeneres also spoke seriously about the importance of legalizing gay marriage, telling reporters, “‘I think someday people will look back on this like women not having the right to vote and segregation and anything else that seems ridiculous that we don’t all have the same rights.”

Although the couple did not announce a date for the wedding, news of this weekend’s ceremony was leaked by a few press outlets this weekend, fueling the ongoing media frenzy around their wedding.

E! News has more details about the ceremony in their video coverage of the news:

Singer Melissa Etheridge and actress Tammy Lynn Michaels had a much-publicized commitment ceremony in 2003, and Rosie O’Donnell and her longtime-partner Kelli Carpenter were married in San Francisco in 2004.

Earlier this month, actress Heather Matarazzo (Exes & Ohs) announced her engagement to girlfriend Carolyn Murphy.

More high-profile same-sex weddings are expected in the coming months, as couples around the country rush to marry before the courts — or the voters — have the chance to roll back recent advancements in gay rights.