Morning Brew – Ellen confronts divorce rumors

Good morning! Lot’s of good stuff for you today.

Martina Navratilova and Jason Collins appeared together at a United Nations event celebrating International Human Rights Day. Jason called Martina his idol, while Martina quipped:

“When Collins came out this year, he got a phone call from President Obama congratulating him. Well, in 1981, Reagan was president. I didn’t get that phone call.”

Although Martina said she does not support boycotts, she is not happy about the lack of support gay athletes are getting at the Sochi Olympics and also spoke out about the upcoming World Cup.

“Nobody’s talking about Qatar and the World Cup. You can get a jail term there,” she said of consensual gay sex in the Persian Gulf nation. In six other countries, including Saudi Arabia, simply being gay is punishable by death, she said.

Finally got to meet @jasoncollins34 today at the UN sports against homophobia conference:). He is taller … pic.twitter.com/MdpX9W9gDk

– Martina Navratilova (@Martina) December 10, 2013

Speaking of Russia, check out Uprising of Love, a campaign to support the LGBTQ people of Russia. Stars like Sara Gilbert, Melissa Etheridge and Lily Tomlin are all a part of it so you’ll be in good company if you join the cause.

Congrats to out lesbian activist Chai Feldblum on being reelected for a second term on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Today is your last chance to see “Creating Ourselves in Our Own Images,” a photography exhibit focusing on lesbians in Namibia. It’s at the Goethe Center in Windhoek, a city in Namibia.

Brittney Griner came in at number two in the espnW Impact List.

While we’re talking lists, Edie Windsor is number three on Time‘s Person of the Year. The Pope came in at number one. We demand a recount!

Sandra Bernhard talked with Flavorwire about playing Nancy on Roseanne.

I think the thing that is most important about Roseanne was that she took people, everyday people, and put you into their lives and situations as a person would be. You know what I mean? People who are gay don’t spend all day thinking about being gay.

They’ve got to go to work, they’ve got families, and now a lot of them have children and marriages. The only people who really think about being gay are the people who feel victimized by it. That wasn’t the approach that Roseanne took, nor was it the collaborative idea. It was fun and crazy and a little bit titillating. And, you know, the whole point was that [Nancy] had run from her brief marriage to Arnie on the show and he drove her crazy, until she decided she’d rather be gay. It was to challenge and to open people up, but it wasn’t this sort of beat-you-over-the-head-with-it, you know, “We’re gay and this is how gay people live!” She was part of the fabric of the little town, as were the gay men on the show. Roseanne just took it and made it another layer to life in America.

This is the best What Would You Do? scenario and outcome I have ever seen.

I love when lesbians are the voice of reason.

iO Tillett Wright went on Take Part Live to talk about Self-Evident Truths and queerness this week.

EW has a great piece from Uzo Aduba. An excerpt:

Sian Heder, she wrote the episode [“Lesbian Request Denied”] – and it was like, “Pees on floor, smash to Orange Black.” That was it. It’s just that fast. And my jaw was just dropped. “So I’m going to pee on a floor, my mom is going to see this…” But what we learned [is] in prison, that actually happens. People do that – like, territorial marking. Which I couldn’t believe. And so when I learned that that’s like, a practice sometimes. I thought “well, okay, absolutely then she would do that.” Because do you know how much work I put into this relationship? I wrote you poetry! I threw my pie for you! You know how hard that is to come by? We are in jail. I have gone to hell and back for you. Of course I’m going to mark this territory, and let everybody know that you’re mine. I was never going for like, the laugh. I just remember, I thought to myself, “this is so straight.” If we thought the stakes were high with throwing of the pie, this is actually the highest point, to me.

The Daily Beast thinks Danielle Brooks (aka Taystee) is the breakout star of the year.

Borough President Marty Markowitz has named Brooklyn the lesbian capital of the Northeast. Provincetown and Northampton are surely organizing demonstrations to prove otherwise.

Ellen DeGeneres laughed off divorce rumors on her show. She’s very happily married to Portia de Rossi. Duh.

In case you’re not watching The Voice this season (I’m not, there’s no lesbians!) here’s Michelle Chamuel performing on Tuesday.

Today in Lesbianish TV: The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Queen Latifah Show, *Buffy (FX 7 a.m., 8 a.m.), Ellen marathon (FX 9 a.m.), The Other Shore (Showtime 1:50 p.m.), The Talk (CBS 2 p.m.), *Secrets of a Restaurant Chef (Food Network 2 p.m.), *Boy Meets World “Shallow Boy” (ABC Family 3:30 p.m.), Basic Instinct (Encore Suspense 4:50 p.m.), *Jersey Strong “New Beginnings” (Pivot 5:30 p.m.), *Girl Code marathon (MTV 6 p.m.), Jane Velez-Mitchell (HLN 7 p.m.), Our Idiot Brother (Showtime2 8:30 p.m.), The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC 9 p.m.), Grey’s Anatomy “Get Up, Stand Up” (ABC 9 p.m.), The Returned “Adele” (Sundance 9 p.m.), White Collar “Digging Deeper” (USA 9 p.m.), Glee “Extraordinary Merry Christmas” (Fox 9 p.m.), Two and a Half Men “On Vodka, On Soda, On Blender, On Mixer!” (CBS 9:31 p.m.), Time of Death “Maria & Nicolle” (Showtime2 10 p.m.), *Love & Hip Hop “Messy All Over the World” (VH1 12 a.m.), *Friday Night Lights “East of Dillon” (Pivot 1 a.m.) (Thanks Roni!)

*Denotes reerun