This fall, the Brian Lehrer Show is marking 25 years of Brian at WNYC with a year-by-year look at stories that mattered from 1989 to 2014. Find the full schedule and lots more here.

Portia De Rossi, Ellen DeGeneres and Betty DeGeneres

(Jeff Kravitz/Getty)

In 1997, Ellen DeGeneres announced she was gay in an episode of her sitcom. The show was later canceled after a backlash, but today she's a hugely popular talk show host and she's legally married in California. We discuss how gay rights have changed since that major moment in 1997 with her mother Betty DeGeneres, who now works with PFLAG, and how coming out is different 17 years later. Betty took your calls as a guest in '99 and she will again.

Ellen's "Coming Out" Episode ("I'm Gay" at 8:30)