Ellen Page says it’s time to "step up" to support transgender people.
The 32-year-old actress – who is married to Emma Portner – has said that transgender people are "under attack" as one of the most "marginalised" groups of people, and believes more needs to be done to protect them.
She said: "We need to realise that a lot of the most marginalised people in our community have been left behind. We need to step up for trans people because they’re under attack."
The ‘Juno’ star decided to speak out after lesbian tennis player Martina Navratilova was fired from an LGBTQ charity last week for making transphobic comments against transgender female athletes.
Martina said: "A man can decide to be female, take hormones if required by whatever sporting organisation is concerned, win everything in sight and perhaps earn a small fortune, and then reverse his decision and go back to making babies."
And responding to those comments, Ellen slammed the sporting star for letting history repeat itself, as she branded Martina’s words as "demonising and dehumanising."
She said: "It’s not like people didn’t use the same arguments for lesbian, gay and bisexual people, but people are also using that rhetoric to make trans people seem like predators. It’s demonising and dehumanising. It’s deplorable.
"In regards to those conversations in the UK, and the treatment and attack on trans rights in the US, it’s utterly cruel."
The ‘Inception’ actress then called on people around the world to "wake up" and "educate themselves" on issues surrounding the LGBT community.
Speaking to Gay Times magazine, Ellen said: "I deal with a lot of ‘progressive people’, powerful people, who have said ridiculous s**t to me. People need to wake up, they need to educate themselves."
Ellen Page: It’s time to defend transgender people
