this is "nightline." >> tonight, less than a week after the orlando massacre, one gay woman's reaction. she bought a gun, and shooe not alone. why a record number of gays and lesbians across america are packing protection. >> and she's the queen of daytime talk, and a big fan of ours. >> i watch "nightline" every tonight. >> reporter: she once again makes a splash as dory. ellen gets serious about taking a stand against bullying. >> why millions of us are finding deeper meaning on the videos on youtube. first, the night line five. >> try duo fusion.

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good evening. thank you for joining us. the fbi says they're already the most targeted group for hate crimes in america.

tonight the lgbt community is reeling from the massacre in orlando. after the price of guns go up after every massacre, this one has people taking extreme measures just to feel safe. >> reporter: it's her latest purchase that she says has brought her some comfort this week. >> it's a little bit of security. >> reporter: as a 29-year-old lesbian living in the south, she says owning a gun is now a necessity. >> people say i love guns. way tonight collect them. i don't love them. i respect them because i know what they can do. >> reporter: she hopes this gun can protect her from becoming a statistic or victim like the 49 shot and killed at pulse in orlando sunday morning. >> i opened up twitter and saw almost 50 of my brothers and sisters, basically, family, that was killed. >> reporter: it was the news of the massacre that led her and her friend to get in a car, drive to a local gun show and purchase this gun. >> i bought a glock 42. it's tiny. i have tiny hands. it works out well.

it'll still kill someone. that's for sure. >> reporter: a transaction that she says took just minutes. >> the speed at which i got the gun is unreal to me, but it's also america to me. i have it for dire situations. i don't have it for every day situations. >> reporter: research says her fears are founded. according to fbi the lgbt community is the most targeted minority, making up a fifth of all hate crimes and more than half of lgbt murders are transgender women of color. that number could be higher as many of these crimes go unreported. >> the police oftentimes don't classify hate crimes properly. mississippi counted one hate crime in the last reporting period. new jersey counted hundreds. i don't think there are more hate crimes in new jersey than in mississippi. i think people in new jersey do a better job could wanting them. >> reporter: she is not alone in wanting to protect herself from

violence. gun sales have spiked after gun shootings, columbine, and now in the wake of the orlando massacre. the latest tragedy has gun shop owners reporting their gay clientele base is growing. the lgbt guns right group saw their membership more than triple days after the shooting. their facebook group climbing from 1500 members to over 5,000. it's a critical question as the gun control debate reaches a boiling point. do more guns equal more opportunities for violence? >> the corporate gun lobby has opposed all reasonable efforts to stop gun violence. >> reporter: or in the right hands, could they stop the tragedies of this magnitude from taking place? >> if there had been other guns inside there, the shooting could have been stopped sooner. >> i'm going to save your second amendment. >> reporter: donald trump, despite breaking away from the nra and his support of barring suspected terrorist from buying assault weapons, insisted in the

wake of the orlando mass shooting that loss of life could have been prevented. >> the night this took place, if you had guns on the other side, you wouldn't have had the tragedy you had. >> a solution the president wasn't buying. >> the notion that the answer would be to make sure that more people in a nightclub are similarly armed to the killer defies common sense. >> reporter: as president obama attempts to console the peoples of the victims and the wounded, the fight for the answer continues in congress. >> i've had enough of the ongoing slaughter of innocence, and i've had enough of inaction this body. >> reporter: senate democrats pushing for gun control reform. even though polls say the majority of americans see the orlando shooting as both an act of terror and a hate crime, the gay community says the latter often gets lost in the debate. >> one thing that people miss in

this time of real unprecedented visibility for lgbtq people is daily life experiences can be places of fear. people walking down the street can get harassed. >> reporter: last year as millions celebrated the landmark supreme court decision legalizing gay marriage across the united states, marking progress and equality, retaliation was looming. >> as we've made progress on the lgbt rights front, there's been a tremendous backlash. >> reporter: george and chris zander were victims of the backlash. they dated for five years. in may 2014 they wed. >> we did it because we loved each other to the point where we knew we weren't going to leave each other. we were soul mates. >> reporter: the honeymoon was cut short. after leaving a popular palm springs gay bar, they were attacked by two men. >> they hit me in the back of the head with a tire iron. i woke up to george screaming.

>> reporter: chris was knocked out, and 71-year-old george pushed to the ground. >> i just wish i could have more to help my husband. >> reporter: george broke his hip in two places. he underwent surgery and was expected to make a full recovery, but he died a few weeks after the attack. >> it's something that i'll never forget. it's something that will probably haunt me for the rest of my life, every time i leave a gay bar, i can't help but to think, you know, something bad could happen. >> reporter: keith and james were charged with felony hate crimes. crimes chris fears will continue to happen with alarming regularity. >> it's hard to bite my lip and listen to what happened and to think about how many people it affected. and how many people are going to have to go through what i went through. because their loved ones were

murdered by hate. >> reporter: as for brie, she says her decision to buy a gun and go public about it has come under fire. >> people try to chase me down and find me at work is not as enjoyable as this person thinks. >> reporter: she hopes she's never in a position where she's forced to pull the trigger. >> i might say i have this. please don't make me use this. i don't want to, but i would. >> reporter: she says if it means protecting her community, she would not hesitate to fire. >> i'll be the first to die or try and stop. it that's my family. i don't know half them, but that's my family. all over the world, that's my family. >> reporter: for the survivors of that orlando attack, healing in the hospital. >> i was thinking i can't go like this. >> reporter: they say there's always another way to combat hate. >> just keep showing the love and don't let people like this bring us down. don't let them ruin our pride, our community's pride.

>> reporter: for "nightline," i'm geo bonetez. >> up next, she's america's sweetest, kindest comedian, but she's not afraid to stand up to bullies. now she's starring in her own sequel. why ellen degeneres says the world needs dory now more than ever. was almost always on my mind. thinking about what to avoid, where to go... and how to deal with my uc. to me, that was normal. until i talked to my doctor. she told me that humira helps people like me get uc under control and keep it under control when certain medications haven't worked well enough. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems,

serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. raise your expectations. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, control is possible. hmmmmm....... [ "dreams" by beck ] hmmmmm...

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it won't shock you to learn that ellen degeneres is relentlessly nice to everyone she meets.

the waitors and random fans, me. her happiness is tinged with sadness and how close her phenomenal success came to crashing down around her. like her character in her new sequel, "finding dory," she has emerged more stronger than ever, which has been a source of inspiration for so many this week in orlando. >> here she is now ellen degeneres. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: she's the queen of daytime, going against the grain to prove sometimes nice guys do finish first. >> now something i never forget to do. that's to dance. >> reporter: the talk show going into its 14th season. still at the top of her game. with no end in sight. >> reporter: oprah walked away. people are afraid you're going to walk away from yours. >> that will be the.

case. >> reporter: no. >> i do love doing the show. i know how much people enjoy it, and i love that people enjoy it. i just have to -- i want to do it as long as everybody is happy. everybody. >> reporter: happy, yes. uplifting, for sure. but it's not just fun and games. ellen is not afraid to tackle controversy, to take a stand for something she feels strongly about. >> reporter: would you have donald trump on your show? >> sure. i don't think he'd do the show but i would have him on. >> reporter: what does he represent to you? >> he's a bully. he represents a bully. he can deny that, but you look at the definition -- and he says i attack back. if someone attacks me, i'm going to attack back. i'm not saying anything about republicans. i'm not anti-republican. i'm not anti-anything. i just -- i'm pro human being. i just don't like bullies.

>> reporter: and while her wife, portia derossi plays a republican big wig, the real life celebrity power couple, almost eight years since their wedding is redefining the modern family. >> you and portia have talked publicly about not having your own kids. that family can be defined in different ways? >> she confuses me. sometimes she'll say, that makes me want to have a kid. i'm like do you want to, she's like no. >> reporter: it sounds like it's kind of in the hopper again? >> no. now it's too late. but we actually did -- we did go through the process of thinking about a donor and who it would be, and, you know, we've talked about it that we've really given it serious consideration. but it's a good, wonderful relationship, and we both have careers, and we're both busy. >> reporter: busy with her hit talk show and 13 years ago she was busy bringing life to a determined little blue tank fish with a short-term memory problem named dory.

>> life get you down and you know what to do? just keep swimming. just keep swimming. >> reporter: just keep swimming, that gentle nudge from this unlikely row. >> i forget things instantly. it runs in my family, at least i think it does. >> reporter: the mission has come to symbolize, courage, perseverance. and just how far we'll go for family. >> nemo, i'm coming. >> dad. >> nemo. >> dad. >> reporter: more than a decade after that first block buster which earned nearly a billions, dory once again making a splash. this time headlining her own sequel, finding dory. >> i have a family. they don't know where i am. let's go. >> reporter: in a way, she's lost, and she's looking to find her way, and i'm wondering if you've ever felt lost. >> for me, my lost was my earlier part of life, and i didn't realize i was lost until i started really doing some soul

searching, and then i look back and go, oh, i didn't have anybody to help guide me and i was lost. i just found my way on my own. >> take me to find him. why didn't i think of that? come on. >> you have to give that fish complete human emotions. and when you cry, i cried. i had to cry. >> reporter: how do you get yourself to cry? >> i felt the sadness and the loss and the abandonment. i have lots of sadness in me, and i think a lot of comedians do. >> welcome, ellen degeneres. >> reporter: she drew on that sadness to create laughter which landed her here on her first appearance on johnny carson's tonight show. >> my girlfriend at the time was killed in a car accident. i had never lost anyone. and so suddenly. >> life is special. >> i just thought, how is this possible that this talented, beautiful, young, healthy girl is just gone and fleas are here? >> everything on this earth

should have a reason, a beneficial purpose, and i feel like everything does except for fleas. >> i just thought. >> wouldn't it be great with we could pick up a phone and ask a god that's questions. >> i was thinking more about fleas. they seem to have ben. no, i didn't realize how many people were employed by the flea collar industry. >> reporter: the first woman invited to sit on johnny carson's couch. she became a household name in the 90s. >> be who i am. >> reporter: in an unprecedented and honest move, she put it all on the line. >> i'm gay. >> reporter: her on screen character, coming out. and a real life parallel with this 1997 time magazine cover. >> when you're gay and you're successful in this business, your whole team says don't rock the boat. keep it down. and i just thought, you know, what's equally as important is

my career is living my life without shame. and so i just wanted to get rid of the shame. >> reporter: but at the time she was taking a huge risk within a year her audience walked away. her show, cancelled. it would be three long years, she says before anyone would return her phone calls. >> the fear is you lose your career, it turned out i did for a while. and three years seemed like forever. it seemed like i was -- i didn't have any money left. i wasn't getting any jobs. i didn't have anything. >> reporter: and like dory, you persevered. >> yeah. >> reporter: she didn't persevere. she thrived. playfully joking her way into hosting the oscars, nearly breaking the internet. i met with ellen two days before the orlando massacre. a senseless, brutal event that shook our national conscious. for days i covered the horrors of the aftermath. met with family after family, now riddled by heart ache and trauma.

then i came across this vigil with candles and flowers. in the center, a dory balloon. someone wrote to the angel still fighting, just keep swimming. i sent these images to ellen. who sent back this image from a young man shot four times. it says i'm still swimming, ellen. they spent time on the phone, and ellen told me the world needs dory right now. perhaps now more than ever. what do you hope people keep away from the film? >> just keep swimming. it applies to us in all kinds of ways. >> reporter: the truly remarkable power of a make believe fish. our thanks to ellen, and, of course, "finding dory" is brought to you by our company, disney, opening in theaters this weekend. why millions of americans have been escaping to youtube, up next. (war drums beating)

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and finally tonight, after a and finally tonight, after a week of horrific events and images almost too painful to watch, it's easy to understand why millions of americans have been going online in search of an escape this week. the sweeter the better. here's nick watt. >> reporter: in a week of violence, hate, and unimaginable news, what do we do? well, nearly 74 million of us watched a dog on facebook play with his new automatic fetch machine. pure uncomplicated joy. hundreds of thousands watched a cat fight itself in the mirror. funny, because we know he's being stupid. on our own site we watched a soldier in a bee costume surprise his son. overcome and elated.

such videos, here's a dog that doesn't understand with furbies are. a chick sitting on a dog. there's no point. well, maybe there is. a kitten and a dog and a sloth cuddling a cat. peace, love, and understanding. i'm nick watt for "nightline" in los angeles. >> i'm pretty sure he's the aqua dog at the pool party. thanks for watching abc news. tune into good morning america tomorrow. we're online at your facebook page and on abcnews.com. good night, america. enjoy your weekend.