Ellen Page claims Mike Pence's politics might have led to reported attack on Jussie Smollett
On The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, actress and activist Ellen Page took aim at Vice President Mike Pence. The former governor of Indiana has historically fought against the legalization of same-sex marriage and has been accused of advocating for gay conversion therapy. Because of this, Page made an impassioned plea for change.
“The vice president of America wishes I didn’t have the love with my wife,” Page said in front of the live studio audience, which booed in support of Page. “He wanted to ban that in Indiana. He believes in conversion therapy.”
Page then went on to place blame on Pence for the reported attack on Empire star Jussie Smollett, who said he was assaulted early Tuesday morning in Chicago by two white men who battered him, put a rope around his neck and poured an unknown chemical substance on him believed to be bleach. The police are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.
“He has hurt LGBTQ people so badly as the governor of Indiana,” Page said, “and I think the thing we need to know, and I hope my show Gaycation did this in terms of connecting the dots, in terms of what happened the other day to Jussie — I don’t know him personally, I send all of my love — connect the dots.”
Page has sparred with politicians in the past over their anti-LGBTQ policies, even confronting then-presidential candidate Ted Cruz in 2015 at the Iowa State Fair. When discussing the attacks and abuse the LGBTQ community has endured, she put the onus on all politicians with such policies.
“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 gonna happen?” Page asked. “Kids are gonna be abused and they’re gonna kill themselves. And people are gonna be beaten on the street.”
And finally, Page didn’t mince words when she called for an end to anti-LGBTQ sentiment in government.
“I have traveled the world and I have met the most marginalized people you could meet,” Page stated. “I am lucky to have this time and the privilege to say this. This needs to f***ing stop.”
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on CBS.
Check out the reaction to Mike Pence swearing in the first openly bisexual senator, Kyrsten Sinema:
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