Transgender Rights: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

this has been a big week for the LGBT community but it's also been a big year for the T part of that equation from Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair cover two TV shows like transparent to another small milestone just this Friday with the curtain Tussauds San Francisco now that is a big step forward for transgender Americans and it's frankly about time because bear in mind it came after the same milestone for Spyder Americans and wookiees but but for all the strides transgender people have made lately let's not get too complacent about how far we've come because they still face a host of obstacles even when the news media are trying to be supportive they can make dumb mistakes your private parts are different now aren't they I don't want to talk about it because it's it's so it's really personal don't you feel funny with the wrong genitalia not as a joke you stand up in the women's bathroom you know I they're tasteful whatever whatever is going on thank you so if I saw you undressed you would look like a woman to me totally yes what are you doing it is no more okay to ask transgender people about their sex organs than it would be to ask Jimmy Carter whether or not he's circumcised which by the way he is smooth like a boiled carrots and sometimes sometimes don't think about that and sometimes the media's confusion is even more basic than that as in the case of this Arizona weatherman just two weeks ago and a transgender woman says she was kicked out of a tempe bar let's bring it back to that earlier headline now as a transgender woman death what does that even mean that she used to be a guy but now the woman [Music] this is are you just saying a woman I can't even keep up anymore oh really hope that's also how he reports the weather wait it used to be rainy and now it's sunny so so so now it's just sunny now I can't even keep up anymore [Applause] look let's let's give him the benefit of the doubt maybe for him and for many people this is new information maybe he's thinking about transgender issues for the first time and he needs a minute to try and understand it so let's take that minute to fill in that bamboozled weatherman and everyone else on some basic details transgender people have a gender identity that differs from the one they were assigned at birth and that gender identity is not the same as sexual orientation gender identity is who you are sexual orientation is who you love some transgender people do undergo hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery as part of their transition some do not and interestingly their decision on this matter is medically speaking none of your business what do I call a transgender person it's so confusing well actually it's pretty simple call them whatever they want to be called you can do it we do it all the time think of it this way David Evans woke up one day and said everyone call me the edge and we all went find the edge are we talking from now on or the verb and and that's it's not just that it's not just that 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 [Applause] it's genuinely crucial that we get this right because there are more transgender people in the u.s. than you might realize one study estimates that nearly 700,000 American adults are transgender that's more than the population of Boston and you probably know someone from Boston I'll give you a clue it was the guy who wore a Bruins jersey to your sister's wedding Wow while a handful of transgender people have been winning awards or appearing on magazine covers the community at large has been facing some staggering challenges a 2011 survey by the National Center for transgender equality found 41% of transgender people had attempted suicide they are nearly 4 times more likely to make less than $100 a year compared to the general population 78 percent of those surveyed reported harassment during K through 12 school 35% reported physical assault and 12% were sexually assaulted that is terrible those statistics are so depressing it's enough to make you angry at the very concept of numbers Q symbols meant to represent a specific value you're the absolute worst the worst we've we clearly got work to do because when you're transgender pretty much any interaction with bureaucracy can be humiliatingly difficult just take what happened to two transgender women when they went to the DMV in West Virginia both women were asked to remove all their jewelry makeup and wigs before the DMV would photograph them they're saying that I need to fulfill certain certain look that they are designating means male and that I'm yeah hiding Who I am which I'm absolutely not both women say they will also refer to as it listen I'm not saying anyone has a good DMV experience but that is the worst I have ever heard and for the record you get to pick virtually everything else on your driver's license they ask you your weight they don't weight you like a prize hog plus the whole idea of a driver's license photo is to present how you look from day to day that's why DMV employees tell you not to smile because they can't imagine anyone whose normal existence involves happiness in any form and anything is even in organizations that have seemed willing to change that change has come frustratingly slowly take the military both the Secretary of Defense and President Obama have indicated they are open to transgender troops being able to serve and yet they're still banned from enlisting because of weirdly archaic restrictions on things like defects of the genitalia such as change of sex and psychosexual conditions including but not limited to transsexualism and transvestitism our current recruitment poster is essentially I want you maybe after we talk about your genitals for a bit I know that's weird but for the moment this is apparently how we do things and yet even despite those restrictions on enlistment by one estimate there are currently 15,000 transgender service members and what you can be discharged for being transgender those rules are enforced inconsistently depending on your branch of service and commanding officer meaning experiences can vary wildly but for some like Logan Ireland it could be great what I like about this deployment is I can be my authentic self I'm just another guy whereas back home I'm still seen as female and I go by FEMA regs and standards here in Afghanistan a war zone it's like a vacation to me because I can be myself in such an austere environment it is not a great sign for how we treat transgender people that Afghanistan is a place where you can be yourself that is the least likely tourism slogan for Afghanistan I put it right behind water park capital of the world and birthplace of the twerk but but compare that with the experience of captain Jacob eliazar of the Army National Guard who faced discharge for being transgender despite his own command to support and the fact he was being awarded a medal the thing that stuck with me the most is as they were pinning that that army commendation medal I mean my regimental commander said thank you for everything that you've done for our regiment Jacob and you use my real name and I I can't I can't express just the emotion of that juxtaposition it's like you're you're kicking me out but you're acknowledging me for myself and giving you award at the same time that utterly ridiculous they gave him an award and then tried to kick him out it's pretty much what Hollywood did to Cuba Gooding jr. and that wasn't okay either but but this is the big problem these are the big problem because even when people say the right things about the transgender community too often practical change fails to follow and perhaps the perfect embodiment of this concerns bathrooms we all use them as the good book tells us everyone poops or as it's known in England everyone poops but to the Queen she has people do it for her across the country there have been efforts by lawmakers to fight non-discrimination ordinances with so-called bathroom bills like this one in Arizona it's a new show me your papers bill for Arizona the sex on your birth certificate would have to match the sex of the bathroom or locker room that you use the target transgender men women here in Arizona six months in jail $2,500 fine for just going into P $2,500 fine for peeing in the wrong place look unless you happen to urinate a 1989 Chateau pur true you're not even going to break even on that deal in the most recent session at least 13 bathroom bills have been introduced in state legislatures and the reasoning behind them can be pretty insulting just listen to presidential candidate Mike Huckabee here now in City after City watching ordinances that say that your seven-year-old daughter if she goes into the restroom cannot be offended and you can't be offended if she's greeted there by a 42 year old man who feels more like a woman than he does a man now I wish someone had told me when I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers and PE I'm pretty sure I would have found my feminine side and said coach I think I'd rather shower with the girls today you're laughing because it sounds so ridiculous doesn't it there's something inherently wrong with forcing little children to be a part of this social experiment no but there is something inherently wrong with forcing us to listen to your up daydreams about all the sex you just being able to find a legal that's weird that kind of baseless fear-mongering is everywhere it even turned up in a campaign ad when Gainesville Florida was trying to pass one of these bills [Music] [Applause] ok let's let's break that down because first assaulting children is still illegal secondly someone abusing a non-discrimination ordinance to assault someone in a bathroom is almost unheard of it's a borderline imaginary crime like dragon rustling or space best eality sure it's terrible but it doesn't really happen also forcing transgender people into certain bathrooms can actually be much more disruptive as activists Michael Hughes a transgender man showed with this photo of himself looking understandably awkward in a ladies room because there are many places that Michael would fit in a tattoo parlor in Reno playing steel guitar in a Johnny Cash tribute band or on the label of his own barbecue sauce but a woman's bathroom not so much besides it is so much easier for everyone when people are allowed to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity rather than one that might match the genitalia they were born with that is why the little pictures on bathroom doors are stereotypical representations of men and women and not biologically accurate depictions of penises and vaginas because that would be troubling for children so I go with the one with the party slug or the angry goat skull on stairs yes legislators have even tried to enforce these bills in high schools with damaging consequences take the case of Henry Bruce Oh a transgender high school student who spoke in opposition to a proposed bathroom bill in Kentucky even though I've been living as a male for some time I've been been accepted by my friends and family at Smail I was being forced to use the girls bathroom and my school to very recently because the school administration did not support my gender either than by letting me use the restrooms Concordat with my gender identity the kids on my school bully me the kids thought that because his administrative administration didn't support my gender identity they didn't have to either and that is the whole point official rules can end up legitimizing prejudice and besides teenagers really don't need extra ideas for how to make each other's lives miserable that's what they do sit on your own Becca side ponytails are so five Nevers ago as Henry finished his speech it actually seems like he'd really connected with the legislators if you don't know a transgender kid already you do know you do now you know me Henry please let me know how I can be any further assistance and thank you so much for your time today and please vote no on Senate bill 76 I educated myself a lot today and I appreciate the testimony you should be proud of proud of yourself for being outstanding from this committee and be so articulate in your comments Henry I love you man I appreciate you I appreciate your courage I can't really imagine that anyone else in this room has the kind of courage that it took for you to come and testify today okay okay but I love you man it's a little much I love Henry too but he's not the best man at your wedding he's a teenage boy trying to take a in the men's room and and it's worth noting once they were done patting Henry on the back and then patting themselves for patting Henry all three of those lawmakers voted to advance the bill to force him into bathrooms where he's bullied now thankfully that that particular bill never became law but that dynamic of praising a transgender persons courage and then not actually supporting them speaks to the fact that we are weirdly comfortable celebrating transgender people while simultaneously dehumanizing them at the DMV printing awards to them as we drum them out of the military and constantly quizzing them about their genitals and look this is a civil rights issue and if you are not willing to support transgender people for their sake at least do it for your own because 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 there is no biopic where Liam Neeson kicks the out of a suffragist this this is not a stamp featuring George Wallace at the schoolhouse door and you are not going to get a monument that says at the base of it he told people where to [Applause] you

Channel: LastWeekTonight

Views: 11,378,073

Keywords: HBO (TV Network), Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (TV Program), John Oliver (TV Writer), transgender rights

Id: hmoAX9f6MOc

Length: 16min 47sec (1007 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 28 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/DiDgr8]

An "oldie but a goodie" (3 years old).

[u/azur_owl]

We honestly don’t deserve John Oliver❤️

[u/KimH2]

I gotta give the confused weather guy 2mins in a little bit of credit he was like kinda 1/2 way there

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He stumbles out a "aren't you just saying a woman then???" which like, yes they are but... she was discriminated against for being trans so the distinction needs to be noted

[u/CosmicCasey]

"[A]nd interestingly, their decision on this matter is, medically speaking, none of your fucking business."

I fucking love you, John

[u/ValyrieLuminaire]

It was so awesome to see someone like him get angry on our behalf, to be just as disappointed in our lawmakers for their dumb decisions and cowardice. To applaud those who came forward after their horrible experiences, this gives me hope. Hope that we have allies left, that we may have our voices heard. I had never seen this before, but man am I happy John Oliver got his own show now. Thank you John for your support!

[u/[deleted]]

Thanks John!

[u/TheMeBehindTheMe]

Official rules can end up legitimizing prejudice.

This is a really important point! [edit: segment begins at 13.25]

I love John Oliver, he's got a way of cutting straight through all the bullshit and breaking everything down into simple common sense.

[u/chargoggagog]

Shocking that those town officials that spoke to Henry so kindly then voted AGAINST his civil rights. Fuck these people!

Also, if you live in Massachusetts: Yes on 3, don’t be a hateful bigot.

[u/camilzeng]

Thank you, John Oliver! <3 Such a sweetheart!!