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LGBTQIA+

Ellen Page's Passionate Defence Of LGBTQ Rights On Stephen Colbert's Show Is A Huge Mood

"It feels impossible to not feel this way right now."

Ellen Page appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday night, and while discussing the homophobic and racist attack on Empire star Jussie Smollett, delivered a passionate, and at times incredibly emotional and moving, defence of LGBTQ rights.

Speaking to Colbert, Page said “I’m really fired up tonight… it feels impossible not to feel this way right now.” She went on to talk about President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, particularly the latter’s record as Governor of Indiana.

“It feels impossible not to feel this way right now with the president and the Vice President Mike Pence, who wishes I could not be married, let’s just be clear. The vice president of America wishes I didn’t have the love with my wife. He wanted to ban that in Indiana, he believes in conversion therapy, he has hurt LGBTQ people so badly as the governor of Indiana.”

Fighting back tears, she goes on to implore people to ‘connect the dots’:

“If you are in a position of power and you hate people and you want to cause suffering to them, you go through the trouble, you spend your career trying to cause suffering, what do you think is going to happen? Kids are going to be abused, and they’re going to kill themselves and people are going to be beaten on the street.

I have travelled the world and I have met the most marginalised people you could meet. I am lucky to have this time and the privilege to say this. This needs to fucking stop.”

Pence has a history of supporting homophobic groups and causes. In the 90s, he was on the board of the Indiana Family Institute, a far-right group that campaigned against equal rights for LGBTQ people and supported the criminalisation of abortion.

When he ran for Congress in 2000, part of his platform was to oppose “any effort to recognize homosexuals as a discrete and insular minority entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws.”

In 2015, he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law – according to the New Yorker, this law essentially legalised discrimination against gay people by by businesses in Indiana.

Page’s point is that a direct line can be drawn between policies like the ones Pence signed into law during his time as Governor and attacks like the one on Jussie Smollett – the dots can and must be connected. Homophobic and transphobic legislation only serves to empower homophobic and transphobic people; it makes them think their views are okay, and that they have ‘permission’ from the government to act on those views.

Look at the impact Australia’s own same-sex marriage plebiscite had on the mental health of LGBTQ people. University of Sydney researchers found that “same-sex-attracted people who were more frequently exposed to messages of prejudice and messages of discrimination during the postal survey also reported more elevated symptoms of depression and anxiety, and also stress”.

Being exposed to hateful messages and experiencing an increase in levels of depression and anxiety should not be the price of being gay in Australia. Being violently attacked on the streets of Chicago should not be the price of being black and gay. Being shot at multiple times should not be the price of being a black trans woman in Houston.

I’m incredibly grateful to Ellen for using her platform to talk about these issues, and to encourage people to connect the dots. I’m also grateful to Stephen Colbert for sitting back and letting Ellen speak without interjecting or adding his own commentary.

And it looks like many others are feeling grateful, too:

Thank you, Ellen. ❤️