One of the most frustrating things about the activism I do was exquisitely demonstrated last night. I've been actively activisting since I transitioned 23 years ago, on various platforms (email lists, the web, IRC, in public appearances and presentations, and in the past decade, blogging).
Yet last night, on Last Week Tonight John Oliver reached more people in 17 minutes than I have in all my efforts.
I'm not complaining, mind you. It is a fantastic thing that Oliver did. And it's not his fault that he has a platform available to him which I shall never experience.
Good on you, John Oliver. May you begin a trend.
This is a civil rights issue. If you are not willing to support transgender people for their sake, at least do it for your own. We’ve been through this before, we know how this thing ends. If you take the anti-civil rights side and deny people access to something they’re entitled to, history is not going to be kind to you.
--Oliver
We are weirdly comfortable celebrating transgender people, while simultaneously dehumanizing them at the DMV. Pinning awards to them as we drum them out of the military and constantly quizzing them about their genitalia.
--Oliver
If you're still wondering, 'What do I call a transgender person? It's so confusing,' Actually, it's pretty simple: Call them whatever they want to be called. You can do it. We do it all the time.
Over the past 20 years, we've agreed to call this man Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, just Diddy, and now Puff Daddy again — and most people don't even like him.
--Oliver
Some transgender people do go undergo hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery as part of their hormone therapy. Some do not. And, interestingly, their decision on this matter is, medically speaking, none of your fucking business.
--Oliver
Secondarily, his video was the goto topic on Gawker's
Morning After,
Rolling Stone,
Time, and Slate.
And Vox actually added another video to their article on the Oliver outburst...with an actual transgender woman speaking.