Howard Stern took a significant chunk of time on his radio show today to defend Ellen DeGeneres from the conservative group One Million Moms’ boycott of JC Penney. During the impassioned discussion, he admonished Republican presidential candidates for their anti-gay rhetoric and highlighted the portrayal of bullying in Rolling Stone’s article about Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District:

STERN: First of all, I’m proud of JC Penney for not buckling. You know, I am not the world’s biggest Ellen DeGeneres, but I’ll tell you what: I will defend her to the end. If JC Penney fires Ellen DeGeneres, I will call on all my listeners to boycott JC Penney and I will do everything I can for Ellen DeGeneres. I mean, I was so outraged.

This defense of the gay community is a must-listen (language NSFW):

Additionally, DeGeneres thanked Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly today for defending her on his show. Watch it:

(HTs: Joe.My.God. and SheWired.)

JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson spoke out this morning in defense of the company’s new partnership with Ellen DeGeneres. The conservative group One Million Moms has called for a boycott against the store for “jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon,” but both JC Penney and DeGeneres have defended the partnership. Johnson told CBS News that he sees no controversy because “Ellen represents the values of our company”:

JOHNSON: 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. Our company was founded 110 years ago on The Golden Rule, which is about treating people fair and square, just like if you treated yourself. And we think Ellen represents the values of our company and the values that we share. [...]

As we thought about all the people in America today, we thought Ellen would be the perfect [spokes]person, because we all kind of trust her. She’s a very honest, straight-forward person with extraordinary values… It’s been unbelievably wonderful to work with someone who is so kind, so gracious, so funny, who just I think captures what America is about.

Watch the interview:

(HT: Towleroad.)

Ellen DeGeneres confronted the ‘One Million Moms’ boycott of her partnership with J.C. Penney on her daytime talk show yesterday with trademark humor quipping, “normally I don’t like to pay attention to my haters, but this time I’d like to talk about it because my haters are my motivators.” The anti-gay group, part of the American Family Association, is claiming that the store is undermining “traditional families” by selecting DeGeneres as its spokesperson.

On the show, DeGeneres read some of the supportive comments her fans left on the the group’s Facebook page and then explained her values:

I usually don’t talk about stuff like this on my show. But I really want to thank everyone who is supporting me. And if you don’t know me very well, if you’re just watching maybe for the the first time or you’re just getting to know me I want to be clear. And here are the values that I stand for. I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated and helping those in need. To me those are traditional values, that’s what I stand for.

Watch it:

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly stuck up for Ellen DeGeneres last night in a segment about ‘One Million Moms’ proposed boycott of JC Penney, which has named the openly gay comic and talk show host their spokesperson. “If you remember with the McCarthy era, in the 50s and they were trying to hunt down communist sympathizers and not let them work and put them. What is the difference between McCarthy era communist blacklist in the 50s and the million moms saying, ‘Hey, JC Penney and all you other stores don’t you hire any gay people, don’t you dare.’ What is the difference?” O’Reilly asked:

O’Reilly’s guest Sandy Rios defended the boycott and explained that since DeGeneres has “chosen to act out her lesbian lifestyle and marry her partner…people that believe that marriage is between a man and woman and children should not be exposed to propagandized in homosexuality have a moral problem with that.” “It’s disturbing to them. They are trying to say to JC Penney please don’t do that,” she added.

JC Penney has said that it has no plans to break ties with DeGeneres and has issued a statement emphasizing, “we share the same values as Ellen.”

Earlier this month, the American Family Association’s “One Million Moms” targeted JC Penney for partnering with the openly-gay comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, claiming that the store is undermining “traditional families.” “Degeneres is not a true representation of the type of families that shop at their store,” the group announced in their call-to-boycott. “The majority of JC Penney shoppers will be offended and choose to no longer shop there.”

Thankfully, JC Penney has brushed off the group’s empty threats and is sticking by DeGenes. But at least one mother of a gay man, Deon Davis, was deeply offended by the boycott and has written a letter to the organization warning the “One Million Moms” that their hate speech may be hurting their very own children:

I can assure you that out of one million moms that’s a part of your organization a pretty good percentage of their children are probably suffering from the lack of comfort, understanding and trust to come out as an openly gay person, this situation causes depression, low self esteem, and even suicide. [...]

One Million Mom’s there are much more sufficient problems to address than focusing on Ellen Degeneres, and the only rejection is because she loves and married the same sex, and for the record Ellen and her family is exactly the perfect example of what shops at JC Penney’s.

We have a huge generation of our children destroyed, hurting, bullied, tormented and committed suicide because of non-accepting organizations such as yours; your group message portrays non-acceptance and hate. Being a mother myself my maternal instinct inside me would never risk the welfare of our children by the non-acceptance and public outcry for the termination of a gay person, what type of message are you sending? A message of HATE!

“Ellen DeGeneres is one of the most fun and vibrant people in entertainment today,” Michael Francis, president of JC Penney said in a statement defending the partnership. “The millions who watch her on television and follow her through social media relate to her and trust what she has to say. Importantly, we share the same values as Ellen. At J.C. Penney, we couldn’t think of a better partner to help us put the fun back into the retail experience.”

JoeMyGod notices that the American Family Association’s “One Million Moms” is now targeting JC Penney for partnering with the openly-gay comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, claiming that the store is undermining “traditional families”:

Recently JC Penney announced that comedian Ellen Degeneres will be the company’s new spokesperson. Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of their customers are traditional families. More sales will be lost than gained unless they replace their spokesperson quickly. Unless JC Penney decides to be neutral in the culture war then their brand transformation will be unsuccessful.

Their marketing strategy is to help families shop and receive a good value for their money. Degeneres is not a true representation of the type of families that shop at their store. The majority of JC Penney shoppers will be offended and choose to no longer shop there. The small percentage of customers they are attempting to satisfy will not offset their loss in sales. [...]

By jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon, JC Penney is attempting to gain a new target market and in the process will lose customers with traditional values that have been faithful to them over all these years.

OneMillionMoms.com and OneMillionDads.com are designed to “help parents do something about the trash on TV” and organize weekly on-line boycotts of “offensive” advertising or television shows. The groups have previously called for a boycott of Ben & Jerry’s Schweddy Balls ice cream and are currently objecting to a Macy’s catalogue cover that shows a three-tier wedding cake with two groom figurines on top.