Emily Shur/HBOJohn Oliver is at it again. Hold on a second, we're not done applauding his latest segment.
On Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the comic took on transgender rights, the same weekend cities around the world celebrated LGBT Pride and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality.
Yes, we have Laverne Cox winning awards, getting a wax figure and landing on magazine covers. Caitlyn Jenner made history on the cover of Vanity Fair and by amassing millions of Twitter followers in record time. But despite all that, "let's not get too complacent about how far we've come because they still face a lot of obstacles," Oliver said.
In the nearly 17-minute segment, Oliver addressed the news media's inability to move past certain topics, like genitalia, when it comes to transgender people and the public's hesitance in calling people by their preferred pronoun.
"Call them whatever they want to be called. You can do it. We do it all the time," Oliver said. "Think of it this way: David Evans woke up one day and said, ‘Everyone call me The Edge.' We all went, ‘Fine, The Edge, are we talking the noun or the verb?'" And then there's Sean Combs: Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy. Puffy…you get it.
During the segment, Oliver addressed the military's stance on transgender serviceman and women and whether the policies are enforced depend on a seemingly random basis. And then there are the bathroom issues and several bills that don't respect gender identity.
"Official rules can end up legitimizing prejudice," Oliver said after sharing the story of a transgender teen who faced bullying after his school wouldn't allow him to use his desired restroom.
"This is a civil rights issue, if you are not willing to support transgender people for their own 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 said.
Orange Is the New Black's Cox took to Twitter to praise Oliver for his segment. "This video excites me so much cause it feels like @iamjohnoliver really gets it. when someone really gets u,the best," she shared.
Janet Mock also shared the segment and added, "Yup, @IAmJohnOliver slays w/ an extensive, funny & poignant #trans101 primer."