A “fired up” Ellen Page slammed the Trump administration, and in particular Vice President Mike Pence, for its anti-LGBTQ policies and rhetoric during an emotional interview on The Late Show on Thursday night.
Touching upon the Tuesday attack on Empire actor Jussie Smollett in what Chicago police are calling a possible hate crime, Page said that it was “impossible to not be fired up” with the political situation in the country at the moment. Page focused her ire on Pence, the former governor of Indiana, for his ultra-conservative views on same-sex marriage and conversion therapy.
“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 Gaycation star said. “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,” she added as Late Show host Stephen Colbert held up a picture of Page and her wife, Emma Portner.
Page then suggested that you could “connect the dots” between the policies and rhetoric of people in power and the attack on Smollett and other minorities and marginalized people.
“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,” a visibly angry Page said.
Fighting back tears, Page then alluded to her Viceland show Gaycation, which explores LGBTQ stories from around the world. “I have traveled the world and I have met the most marginalized people you could meet,” she said.
She added: “I am lucky to have this time and the privilege to say this. This needs to fucking stop.”
