During an appearance on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert', the 'Juno' star emotionally offers her view on what happened to Jussie Smollett and its relation to the leaders' attitudes to her community.
- February 2, 2019
AceShowbiz - Ellen Page has accused U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence of encouraging hatred towards the LGBTQ community.
The "X-Men" actress appeared on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on Thursday night (January 29) to promote her new Netflix show "The Umbrella Academy", but said she felt "really fired up" following the racist and homophobic attack on openly gay actor Jussie Smollett earlier this week.
Ellen urged people to "connect the dots" between the leaders' attitudes to the LGBTQ community and hate crimes like the attack.
"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," she began. "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 them, you go through the trouble - you spend your career trying to cause suffering, what do you think is going to happen?".
The 31-year-old grew more angry and emotional as she continued, "Kids are going to be abused and they are 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 can meet. I am lucky to have this time and the privilege to say this. This needs to f**king stop."
Ellen, who received a round of applause from the studio audience and a handshake from Stephen Colbert, also said the politicians both wished she wasn't able to marry her wife Emma Portner last year (2018), and said Pence "hurt LGBTQ people so badly" when he was Governor of Indiana.
"Empire" star Jussie Smollett was hospitalised in Chicago after he was beaten and had a noose tied round his neck by masked men in the street in the early hours of Tuesday. The attackers allegedly called him a "n**ger" and a "f**got" before yelling "this is MAGA country", referring to Trump's famous "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan.
The controversial Republican leader has since condemned the attack, calling it "horrible," and saying, "It doesn't get worse."
