King, a student at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California, had asked his classmate and suspected killer, Brandon McInerney, to be his valentine. This prompted threats, which McInerney is said to have carried out with a gunshot to the head in English class on February 12.

"A boy has been killed, and a number of lives have been ruined," DeGeneres says, "and somewhere along the line a killer, Brandon, got the message that it's so threatening, and so awful, and so horrific that Larry would want to be his valentine, that killing Larry seemed to be the right thing to do."

"And," she continues, "when the message out there is so horrible; that to be gay, you could get killed for it; we need to change the message."

"Larry was not a second-class citizen. I am not a second-class citizen. It is OK if you're gay."

The entire monologue is available to view below, as posted on YouTube and broadcast on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on February 29, 2008.