Glee's Jane Lynch Tells Ellen DeGeneres She Inspired Her to Come Out

Emmy winner Jane Lynch visited to Emmy winner Ellen DeGeneres yesterday on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

During the interview, Jane spoke about coming out in Hollywood and told Ellen: “I was more closeted in my life when I was younger,” confessed Jane.

But Jane wasn’t very secretive about her sexuality in her career, in part, due to Ellen publicly professing herself to be a lesbian back in 1997 both on her sitcom and on the cover of Time Magazine with the headline: “Yep, I’m Gay.”.

“It made it so much easier for me when you [came out],” she said.

Jane, who pre-Glee was already well-regarded character actress from such films as Best In Show and The 40 Year Old Virgin, added that it might have been harder for her to be honest about her sexuality if she were a Julia Roberts-type actor. In response, Ellen quipped, “So you’re saying Julia Roberts is gay?”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Lynch joked.

It was great to have two openly-gay women having this kind of discussion on a nationally syndicated daytime talk show.

Glee returns to FOX next week for a second season.