Oprah Celebrates 25 Years of Gay

She may be best remembered for her book club and giving away new cars and Australian trips to lucky audience members, but Oprah Winfrey – who retires her long-running, groundbreaking talk show this season to launch the television network OWN – is taking a retrospective look at LGBT issues that shaped our lives during the last 25 years.

Today’s show will revisit hot-button issues like AIDS and “coming out” with special guests that include Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis and India’s Prince Gohil, the only openly gay prince in the world. Both men have appeared on the show in past years – Louganis discussed coming out as HIV-positive in 1995, while Prince Gohil talked to Winfrey after his family disowned him for being gay in 2007.

Even after the show wraps this year, Winfrey is keeping her sights set on gay issues when she premieres Chaz Bono’s documentary about gender transitioning into a man in Becoming Chaz to be featured on the OWN network. The Big O’s also tapped Rosie O’Donnell to collaborate in OWN’s new Documentary Film Club, which will spotlight important documentaries with on-air discussions. O’Donnell will also premiere her one-woman talk show on OWN in the fall.

Here’s a clip of Louganis’ appearance on Oprah’s show in 1995: