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As a result, Winfrey's own sexual orientation would be called into question. As evidence of the very homophobia Winfrey was attempting to battle, there was tabloid speculation that her unflagging support of gay and lesbian people was motivated by a more personal agenda.

Months after appearing on Ellen and hosting DeGeneres and Heche, Winfrey issued a press release, stating:

“Since my appearance on the Ellen show, there have been rumors circulating that I'm gay. I've addressed this on my show, but the rumor mill still churns...The latest development in the rumor saga is that I'm supposed to be doing a coming-out interview with a major news magazine. I'm not… As I've said, I appeared on Ellen's show because I wanted to support her in her desire to free herself--and I thought it was a really good script. I am not in the closet. I am not coming out of the closet. I am not gay."

Some might argue that a bolder approach would have been to refuse to dignify the speculation (and its tone of accusation) with a denial. But regardless of her desire to establish herself as heterosexual, Winfrey has constantly made the gay issue “personal.” In fact, her success in covering gay issues on her program stems largely from the way in which she inserts herself in the discussions of the topics at hand.

Winfrey takes the stance that homophobia is wrong and that gay people deserve to be treated with respect. She may ask the most basic questions, like, “Straight people go to gay bars?” and “Why are some gay men flamboyant and others aren't?” and (to DeGeneres and Heche regarding their love affair) “What of the people who say ‘yuck'?” but they are delivered in the spirit of gathering information for her least-informed and therefore most likely to be educated viewers.

Winfrey also personalizes the issue by introducing some of her gay and lesbian guests as close personal friends. This was true in the case of designer Nate Berkus, a regular guest on the show who received unexpected media attention when he and his partner Fernando Bengoechea fell victim to the devastating tsunami in Sri Lanka in 2004. Bengoechea was missing and presumed dead, but Berkus miraculously survived and told his story on Oprah (air date January 17, 2005).

Strangely, the expression of sympathy for Berkus from Winfrey's widely diverse American audience that followed the show came just after the passage of legislation prohibiting gay marriage in states across the nation and amidst continuing attempts by conservative politicians to ban gay marriage with a federal amendment.

In her January 2005 opinion piece on Salon.com, writer Jennifer Buckendorff refers to Winfrey's uncanny ability to personalize the political as “the Oprah approach.” She writes, “giving people an immediate connection to social issues by making them personal--can change people's minds about deeply held beliefs.”

The support for Berkus expressed on the Oprah message boards alone was both telling and encouraging. Of it, Buckendorff writes, “At last check, there were 4,568 similar messages of support for this man and his partner. Has any story in the media about gay marriage accomplished nearly as much?”

Winfrey recently invited Berkus back to the show to discuss his return to Sri Lanka one year after the tsunami. Her cameras followed Berkus on his emotional journey back to the ruins of the hotel where he and Bengoechea had been sleeping when the tsunami hit. Along the way, Berkus spoke to others—including the owner of the hotel—who had lost their spouses in the disaster, and it was clear that they regarded his loss as no less than their own.

The way in which the story was constructed put Berkus' gay relationship on equal footing with those of his fellow heterosexual survivors. But, perhaps most significantly, the episode made it clear that Oprah herself understood his loss to be just the same as any heterosexual person who had lost their mate.

Winfrey recalled going to Berkus' home shortly after his return from Sri Lanka and “crawling into bed” with him to comfort him. The intimacy of her friendship with Berkus, and Winfrey's regard for his relationship with Bengoechea once again sent a clear message to her viewing audience: Oprah loves the gays and she supports their love for one another.

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