John Oliver has a poignant, funny primer on transgender rights — and a warning

(Image credit: Last Week Tonight)

last updated 29 June 2015

The Supreme Court on Friday handed a big win to the entire LGBT community, John Oliver said on Sunday's Last Week Tonight, but he wanted to focus on the "T" part. With Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox, the transgender community has visible icons and some greater public recognition. "But for all the strides transgender people have made lately, let's not get too complacent about how far we've come," Oliver said, "because they still face a host of obstacles."

Chief among those is ignorance, as Oliver showcased through a clueless Arizona weatherman and numerous interviewers obsessing about transgender women's genitalia. So Oliver took a minute to explain. "Gender identity is who you are, sexual orientation is who you love," he said. "Some transgender people do undergo hormone replacement 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 f—ing business."

Oliver walked through some other problems facing the up to 700,000 transgender people in the U.S., then ended on a cautionary note: "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." As always, there is some mildly NSFW language and imagery — "space bestiality"? — and ample humor to leaven a weighty subject. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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