March 9, 2021
Watch: Jesse Tyler Ferguson Quips He's Raising His Son Gay - at Least Until He Comes Out as Straight
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson paid a virtual visit to Ellen's talkshow March 9 to promote his new cookbook. While he has at it, he revealed his recipe for parenthood: Raise his son gay, but accept him if he comes out as straight.
Ferguson's visit was primarily to tell Ellen's viewers about "Food Between Friends," which he co-authored with Julie Tanous. The book, described as focusing on "modern California food with Southern and Southwestern spins," is set to be released March 9.
Ferguson was video calling from his kitchen, a setting he worried might be "on the nose," given the subject of his appearance.
"I think it's smart," Ellen reassured him. "If we stray from the conversation it brings us right back."
Ellen raised the subject of Ferguson' son, saying, "I haven't seen you since you became a dad." Ellen went on to ask how old the baby, whose name is Beckett, was.
"He is eight months old as of yesterday," Ferguson replied, as the audience cooed to images of him with the baby.
Asked by Ellen how he liked parenthood, Ferguson said, "We're still figuring out his personality. This is a funny thing about kids that they don't tell you: It's a new person in your life, and just like anyone else who comes into your life, you've got to figure out if you like them."
As the audience laughed at the wisecrack, Ferguson said Beckett is "a really sweet boy," and related how he had wanted to be a parent "for a long time," but held off until his husband, Justin Mikita, was also ready to welcome a child.
Ferguson told Ellen that he sings "a lot of show tunes" to the baby, "because that's what I like," and threw in the barb "I'm raising him gay until he decides he's straight."
Ferguson's flipping of typical heteronormative assumptions earned another wave of laughter from the audience, and Ferguson joined in, before going on to say that as he and his husband were driving the newborn Beckett home from the hospital they put Britney Spears on the car's sound system.
Ellen, perfectly deadpan, went along with the joke. "So, you're raising him gay until he says he's straight, but you'll love him just the same if he is straight, right?"
"Absolutely," Ferguson said, before predicting that Beckett would turn out to be "such a straight kid."
Watch the clip from the "Ellen Show" below.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
