Ellen Page was on The Late Show last week, and she’s getting a lot of headlines for speaking out so clearly against the anti-LGBTQ policies of the current administration, and for the despicable way the media is reporting the hate crime against Jussie Smollett. Ellen has been married to her wife, Canadian dancer and choreographer Emma Portner, for a year. They opened by discussing that and joking that Emma is taller than Ellen. Then they talked about serious issues and Ellen teared up when she mentioned the abuse she suffered early in her career. It was moving and I could feel her pain and her resolve in just spelling out how awful things are. She’s also an outspoken environmentalist and they talked about climate change along with the fact that the policies of the current administration are responsible for the rise in hate crimes. The interview is well worth watching, I got choked up at points, and here are some highlights:

I first interviewed you five years ago after you first came out. Has it changed in the last few years?
There is some progress, some more representation. Honestly I really think we need to hurry up. It’s not cutting it. Hollywood and the film industry in particular is just so binary and narrow in its ideas of who can tell stories and who can be in the stories. Clearly, there are changes and extraordinary people leading the way. I hope it continues to go quicker. There’s certain things I’m just sick and tired of.

In terms of the misogyny and homophobia I’ve dealt with [in my career] it’s really unfortunate. I dealt with a lot of stuff that was totally normalized since [I was] really young.

How can we get the public and the media to pay more attention to global warming?
The most marginalized people are the ones that are suffering the most currently. Including the environmental racism that is happening in Canada. It disproportionately affects people of color. We need to be talking about it, it’s really serious. By 2030 the world as we know it, that’s it.

The urgency os so severe and we have a media that’s barely talking about it. We have a media that’s saving it’s a debate whether or not what happened to Jussie Smollett is a hate crime, it’s absurd. This sh-t isn’t a debate.

I’m like really fired up tonight. It feels impossible to not feel this way right now with the President and the Vice President Mike Pence who like wishes I couldn’t 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.

“Connect the dots”
In terms of what happened to Jussie: connect the dots. This is what happens. If you are in a position of power and you hate people and you want to cause suffering to people. 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 traveled the world and have met the most marginalized people. I am lucky to have the time and the privilege to say this. This needs to f’ing stop.

[From The Late Show]

That was so moving, so true and so powerful. I get like this a lot about issues. I get upset, I get mad and I rage a bit. I have cut people out of my life who don’t get it, or who call me an alarmist or too extreme. I don’t know how else to be about it, it’s so f’ing obvious, and I so appreciate Ellen Page just telling it like it is, getting mad and upset and being outspoken. I also appreciate this platform we have and know that there is no other way to report these things. Lately there really is just one side that’s right. There are facts, there’s basic human decency, and then there’s the other “side” that wants everything their way to the detriment of everyone else.

Also, where can I get a shirt like hers? I would wear the hell out of that.