Elliot Page has blasted the ‘horrible backlash towards trans people’ in his first television interview since he came out as transgender.
The 34-year-old sat down with Oprah Winfrey for an interview for Apple TV and shared why it was important for him to speak out about the ‘horrible backlash we’re seeing towards trans people, particularly trans youth.’
The actor told Vanity Fair that he saw the interview as “an opportunity to use a wide-reaching platform to speak from my heart about some of my experience and the resources I’ve been able to access—whether therapy or surgery—that have allowed me to be alive, to live my life.”
Page, who came out as transgender last December, said he feels ‘profound sadness’ about laws that would ban gender-affirming care – like puberty blockers and hormone therapy – for minors.
“For me, I think, it is this time we’re in right now and especially with this horrible backlash we’re seeing toward trans people, particularly trans youth, it really felt imperative to do so,” he said.
“The experience I had closeted so long… I came out as gay right before my 27th birthday and up until then I had pretty much never touched someone outside who I was in love with.”
“And so I think any kind of sensation of feeling that again, there was just no way I could do it,” Page continued.
“And it felt important and selfish for myself and my own well being and my mental health and also with this platform I have, the privilege that I have, and knowing the pain and the difficulties the struggles I faced in my life, let alone what so many other people are facing, it absolutely felt crucial and important for me to share that.”
In the interview with Thomas Page McBee for Vanity Fair, the actor said that his decision to speak out comes as hostility towards the trans community increased.
“The rhetoric coming from anti-trans activists and anti-LGBTQ activists — it’s devastating,” he expressed.
“My feelings aren’t really linear. I feel emerging joy and excitement one moment, and then in the next, profound sadness reading about people wanting to take gender-affirming health care away from children.”
Many states have introduced bills that would pose restrictions to trans people, with some not allowing trans minors to join school sports and others forbidding gender-affirming health care.
“These bills are going to be responsible for the death of children. It is that simple,” he said.
“You’re basically seeing your identity challenged constantly. It’s so much toxic dialogue and rhetoric, and complete denial of trans and gender-nonconforming people’s existence.”
Page admitted that he was just a kid when he knew that he was a boy.
“All trans people are so different, and my story’s absolutely just my story. But yes, when I was a little kid, absolutely, 100%, I was a boy,” he expressed.
“I was writing fake love letters and signing them “Jason.” Every little aspect of my life, that is who I was, who I am, and who I knew myself to be.”
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