Ellen DeGeneres slams ‘insane’ Mississippi anti-gay law
The popular TV host has spoken out against the controversial law – the country’s most anti-gay yet.
Ellen DeGeneres has spoken out against Mississippi’s religious freedom bill, which was passed earlier this week.
Phil Bryant signed the controversial bill – which allows businesses to discriminate against LGBT people – into law on Tuesday.
However, unlike bills passed in other states, Mississippi’s House Bill 1523 only protects people with anti-LGBT religious views, making it the most anti-LGBT bill to date.
It states that it’s acceptable to discriminate someone who identifies as LGBT, if the view is held that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, sex should only happen in marriage and male and female refer only to someone’s anatomy.
“I’m not a political person, I’m really not. But this is not politics, this is human rights,” Ellen said on her show.
She then told the audience that the issue was “very personal” to her.
“That is the definition of discrimination,” she continued. “It is also something the Supreme Court ruled on when they made marriage a right for everyone. Everyone.
“The Supreme Court said something that Diana Ross and The Supremes said a long time ago – ‘stop, in the name of love’. Now Mississippi is saying, ‘I don’t second that emotion’.”
Ellen went on to recall how she used to visit Mississippi as a child, and offered support to the LGBT community.
“Don’t lose hope,” she said. “I was fired for being gay and I know what it feels like.
“I lost everything. But look at me now.
“I think we need to remember that we are more similar than we are different, and we all want the same things – love, acceptance, kindness… and I want one of those new Teslas!”
“So I advocate for less hate and more love, less tearing apart and more coming together, less sitting and more dancing,” she concluded.
The Governor of Georgia agreed to veto a similar law last month when it made it to his desk – while North Carolina has been subjected to lawsuits and boycotts after Republican Pat McCrory signed it into law.
