The Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage was a historic milestone, but it didn’t put an end to discrimination against same-sex couples.
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Now Oliver is calling on the feds to extend basic civil rights protections to the gay community. “That’s optimistic, but wrong”, noted Oliver.
“That’s clearly awful”, he said. Oliver wasn’t sure why no one else responded; he didn’t think it should take several days to answer the question “Should gay people be discriminated against?” Gays, lesbians, and trans individuals have no protections for their employment, housing, public accommodation, or access to credit, and although President Obama has introduced some federal-level protections for the LGBT community, they could be overturned by his successor.
That’s because LGBT discrimination is still not illegal everywhere in the U.S. In 31 states, people are still at risk of losing their jobs and homes and being refused service at businesses just for being gay. As will the reminder that just because federal law allows same-sex marriage doesn’t mean the fight for civil rights is over.
“State’s have a checkered history when it comes to civil rights”, said Oliver, as he stated that LGBT people shouldn’t have to wait for every state to catch up with anti-discrimination laws.
As Oliver pointed out, that’s the opposite of progress.
On last week’s “Last Week Tonight“, Oliver explored the business of televangelists and their tax-exempt status, noting the IRS conducted just three church audits from 2013 to 2014 after the agency had suspended them entirely from 2009 to 2013. “Religious freedom is not an inherently bad thing”, said Oliver, “And I’m not just saying that because I’m the current mega-reverend of Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption”.
“This should be what represents the threshold of true gay tolerance”, said Oliver, “Not whether or not you would consider attending a gay wedding”.
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Oliver’s “church” was subsequently inundated with donations.
