“And look, there are lots of understandable reasons someone in Alabama might be criminally punished. For murder, say, or for running a Ponzi scheme or for creating this actual statue at an Alabama McDonald’s of Ronald McDonald reimagined as a giant boll weevil. But no one should ever be facing criminal punishment for providing healthcare to young people.”
The law made it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison to provide or prescribe gender-affirming medication to transgender youth.
Oliver then played a clip of Ivey saying, “Some things are just facts. Summer’s hot, the ocean’s big, and gender is a question of biology, not identity. Here in Alabama, we’re gonna go by how God made us because we identify with something liberals never will: reality.”
“Okay, first, fuck you. Second, ‘summer’s hot, ocean’s big’ doesn’t sound like the wind up to denying trans people their rights,” the host said after airing the video. “It sounds like a children’s book the author wrote while hungover. ‘Summer’s hot. Ocean’s big. I don’t know, what more do you fucking kids want from me?’”
Oliver concluded with a message to Alabama’s transgender minors: