Nearly 700,000 transgender Americans face daily discrimination. On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, John Oliver discusses the challenges that transgender people must endure daily – including what you should call them:
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 sexual reassignment surgery as part of their transition; some do not. And interestingly, their decision on this matter is, medically speaking, none of your fucking business. If you’re still wondering, ‘What do I call a transgender person, it’s so confusing,’ actually it’s pretty simple: call them whatever they want to be called.
Oliver also takes on dumb comments by presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, the media’s fascination with genitals, and the political hypocrisy we see on the subject of transgenderism.
“It’s genuinely crucial we get this right. Because there are more transgender people in the U.S. than you might realize,” Oliver said. “One study estimates that 700,000 American adults are transgender. That’s more than the population of Boston. And you probably know somebody from Boston.”
