People Are Heaping Praise On Don Cheadle For Wearing A ‘Protect Trans Kids’ Shirt On ‘SNL’


NBC

One of the high points of the most recent Saturday Night Live was a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, even better than Alec Baldwin’s Trump being a lot more coherent than Trump: While introducing musical guest Gary Clark Jr. for his second performance, host Don Cheadle wore a brown t-shirt emblazoned with the words “PROTECT TRANS KIDS.”

The Oscar-nominated actor, MCU staple, and star of the new ’80s-set show Black Monday never addressed the shirt, nor did he speak out at any length about the issues involving discrimination, bullying or simply ostracization and otherizing in Trump-era America. He knew that simple would do it, and simple meant simply standing there on one of the most watched and examined — and, if you’re the president of the United States of America, attacked — television programs, showing off three simple words.

Cheadle’s act came about around the same time as out tennis player Martina Navratilova was slamming trans colleagues, saying, “Letting men compete as women is unfair.” On a more uplifting note, it also arrived only two weeks after a long-bullied Georgian trans teen was crowned Homecoming Queen.

The t-shirt was roundly praised on social media.

https://twitter.com/MiaMarieMacy/status/1097024362622857222

https://twitter.com/princessjanaepl/status/1097025449090273280

Also on the subject of Cheadle’s SNL attire, the actor closed out the show by wearing a Russian hockey jacket with the name “Trump” on the back with the number 45.

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