‘Saturday Night Live’ star Molly Kearney talks trans kids’ rights during high-flying Weekend Update spot
Michael Che and Molly Kearney during Weekend Update on April 15's episode of 'Saturday Night Live.'
By Dan Heching, CNN
“Saturday Night Live” had some scathing commentary on the current wave of anti-trans legislation sweeping the country, brought to viewers by one of the newer additions to the cast.
Molly Kearney, who has the distinction of being the long-running NBC comedy sketch show’s first nonbinary cast member, literally dropped in on the Weekend Update segment on Saturday in a flying harness, to discuss the issues facing trans kids in the US.
“This harness is pretty tight,” Kearney, who uses they/them pronouns, told Weekend Update co-anchor Michael Che after they landed in a chair at the newsdesk. “I have been hung up on my genitals for far too long, and I’m starting to feel like a freaking Republican lawmaker!”
When Che mentioned that “as of this week, there are now over 14 states that have passed bills restricting healthcare for trans kids,” Kearney said, “Listen to that Michael — restricting healthcare for kids. For some reason, there’s something about the word ‘trans’ that makes people forget the word, ‘kids.'”
“If you don’t care about trans kids’ lives, that means you don’t care about freakin’ kids’ lives,” they added.
Kearney then joked about how they were strung up on the harness waiting to appear on Weekend Update for “longer than I would have liked,” before a quip about their choice of pronouns.
“At one point I heard a crew guy say, ‘Is she gonna die up there?’ And then another crew guy was like, ‘ You mean, are they going to die up there?'” Kearney continued.
“And then they both walked away and didn’t help… which feels a lot how trans people are being treated right now.”
Saturday’s episode of “SNL” was hosted by Cuban-born “Blonde” star Ana de Armas, who joked about how she learned English from watching “Friends” during her opening monologue. Karol G was the musical guest.
“Saturday Night Live” returns with a new episode on May 6, with host (and former cast member) Pete Davidson, and musical guest Lil Uzi Vert.
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