Ellen Page’s tearful rage against Trump-Pence anti-LGBTQ policies: ‘This has to stop’

Feb. 1, 2019 12:35 PM PT

In an impassioned interview Thursday night on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” actress Ellen Page segued from a discussion on climate change policies to harsh criticism of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence’s hard-line stance against progressive LGBTQ polices.

Referring to Jussie Smollett’s attack in Chicago on Tuesday, which authorities are investigating as a hate crime, the “Juno” and “Inception” actress urged the audience to “connect the dots.”

“This is what happens,” she said of the “Empire” star’s attack. “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,” said Page, barely holding back tears. “What do you think is going to happen?

“Kids are going to be abused, and they’re going to kill themselves, and people are going to be beaten on the street,” she continued.

“This needs to … stop,” she later said.

As Page became more emotional, Colbert stopped asking questions and let the actress have her say. “I am fired up tonight,” she told him. “It feels impossible not to feel this way right now, with the president and Vice President Mike Pence, who wishes I couldn’t be married.”

During the interview, Colbert showed a photo of Page with her wife,Emma Portner. They were married last year.

“Let’s just be clear,” Page said. “The Vice President of America wishes I didn’t have the love with my wife. He wanted to ban that in Indiana.”

In her travels around the world filming her Viceland docuseries, “Gaycation,” the actress has shed light on the treatment of LGBTQ communities across different cultures and societies.

She said she hoped her show has opened people’s eyes on how policies affect marginalized people’s lives.

Smollett, a vocal advocate for LGBTQ equality, was assaulted around 2 a.m. Tuesday in what the Chicago Police Department said was a racially charged and homophobic attack.

According to police, two people approached the 36-year-old actor while he was walking in an affluent area of downtown Chicago. The suspects then hit Smollett in the face and “poured an unknown chemical substance” on him, police said.

“At some point during the incident, one of the offenders wrapped a rope around the victim’s neck” before fleeing the scene, the department said in a statement to The Times.

TMZ reported that the assailants yelled “This is MAGA country” — a reference to President Trump’s slogan of Make America Great Again — at the actor.

ALSO: Jussie Smollett thanks fans for ‘outpouring of love’ in first statement since attack