Ellen surprises a gay audience member with an amazing gift
By Joshua Haigh
Ellen DeGeneres surprised one of her gay audience members this week.
The host wanted to congratulate Shippensburg University student Trent Bauer after finding out he created the role of LGBTQ Coordinator at his school to help fellow students.
During the show’s ‘White Men Can Dance… With Twitch’ segment, numerous men got on their feet to join Twitch and dance, including Trent.
Ellen quickly invited Bauer to join her onstage and, after several jokes between the pair, Ellen revealed she knew he was at the show with best friend Stephanie Knauer because she had written a letter to the comedian.
“She said, ‘Dear Ellen, I want to tell you about the most selfless and special person I know and his name is Trent Bauer. He’s your biggest fan. He spent his entire college career fighting for gay rights and was even nominated for Homecoming King because of all the good that he does.'”
“‘Trent has a heart of gold. He’s the definition of a true angel. Ellen, thank you for inspiring Trent to be the guy that he is. Love, Steph.'”
When the comedian asked Bauer if he knew Stephanie had written in, he revealed he didn’t. DeGeneres then asked him about his special role at university and Bauer explained the work that went in to it.
He said: “So I am the LGBT Student Coordinator, which is a position that I wrote to the president and asked them to create. As a student of the LGBT community, I felt that there was an under-served lack of resources.”
“So I wrote to them and asked if I could do some research to develop a centre on campus. And we’re in the process of doing that, so I’m really excited.”
Bauer hopes to have the centre fully established by the time he graduates, and revealed he’s in the process of applying for the Peace Corps.
The surprises didn’t stop there, however, as Ellen, working with Cheerios for the ‘One Million Acts of Good’ project, revealed she had a gift for the LGBT advocate: “I want to do something for you because you’re a good guy.”
She said: “We love what you do for the community. And you’re struggling to pay for college, so we want to be able to help you continue all the good you’re doing. So we’re going to give you $10,000.”
Bauer reacted by bursting into tears and hugging the television host. You can watch the adorable moment below:
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