Ariana DeBose.Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty
Ariana DeBoseis speaking out amid the U.S. Supreme Court’s recentruling against the constitutional right to abortionand JusticeClarence Thomas' concurring opinion aboutcontraception and gay rights.
DeBose, 31, appeared onThe Tonight ShowThursday, telling hostJimmy Fallon, “I’m Black, I’m Afro-Latina, I’m a woman and I’m queer. My country is at war with me, and that’s hard.”
“So this is the time to get in the fight, and it starts on a local level,” she said. “So find ways to get involved.”
DeBose later shareda clip from her interviewon Twitter, writing, “This is not about one set of rights. This is about human rights. Find your local abortion fund and consider donating monthly atabortionfund.org.”
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Since the decision, states such as Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri and South Dakota have alreadybanned abortionafterputting “trigger bans” in placethat governors enacted after the Supreme Court ruling.
In Thomas’concurring opinion on theRoeruling, he wrote that the Supreme Court should reconsiderGriswold v. Connecticut, Lawrence v. TexasandObergefell v. Hodges— the rulings that currently protect the right to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction,the right to a same-sex relationshipand the right to same-sex marriage.
InLawrence v. Texas, the court ruled that criminal punishments for those who commit sodomy are unconstitutional.
DeBose, meanwhile, made history as the first Afro-Latina actress and the first openly queer woman of color towin an Oscar in an acting categorywhen she clinched the Best Supporting Actress statuette at the 94th Academy Awards earlier this year, for her performance inWest Side Story.
During her Oscars speech, DeBose spoke to her identity and how her art helped her come into her own.
“Imagine this little girl in the backseat of a white Ford Focus,” she said. “Look into her eyes, you see a queer — openly queer — woman of color, Afro-Latina who found her strength in life through art, and that’s what I believe we are here to celebrate.”
On thePEOPLE Every Daypodcast last month, the actress explained that rather than particular labels, “I prefer the term human because your humanity can be described in a myriad of ways, but it does not change the fact that you are human.”
“The fullness of who you are, what it’s like to be queer, out, Latina, Afro-Latina, biracial, or multiracial, however you want to identify … we are moving towards a space where I think it is now more widely acceptedto hear all of those labelswrapped up into one person,” DeBose added.
source: people.com
