Ellen Degeneres Received A Medal From Obama And It Was All Kinds Of Feels

Because we need all the heart warming stuff we can get in 2016

Ellen Degeneres Received a Medal from Obama and It Was All Kinds of Feels

by Polly Bartlett |
Published on

Yesterday, Ellen DeGeneres received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the highest civilian honour you can receive in America, in case you didn't know), and Barack Obama's tribute speech to her was basically all the feels.

The chat show host received the award for her influence on the Gay Rights Movement after coming out in 1997, and was awarded alongside other showbiz big names including Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen and Diana Ross.

In his speech, President Obama said: 'It's easy to forget just how much courage was required for Ellen to come out on the most public of stages almost 20 years ago... just how important it was, not just for the LGBT community... but to challenge our own assumptions and bring the country to justice.'

Clearly emotional, he added: 'It's like Ellen Says: we all want a tortilla chip that can support the weight of guacamole... Which really makes no sense to me, but I thought it would break the mood because I was getting kind of choked up.'

Receiving the award through tears, Ellen tweeted earlier in the day that she nearly didn't get into the White House because she'd forgotten her ID - Ellen, you can be the tortilla to our guacamole.

Click to watch the video of Obama's speech.

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Follow Polly on Twitter: @PollyVBartlett

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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