This article is from 2019. In December 2020, Ellen told the world that she was "trans", would go by Elliot, and use he/they pronouns (basically, anything but "she"). I am sharing this because I hate how the general public erases the history of homophobia that has surrounded and shaped Page's career. Ellen Page was long speculated to be gay by the press and by those in the industry. She was not celebrated for it and it took her years to come out publicly as a lesbian due to the shame and the pressure on her career to not be gay.

She spent more time being subject to gay rumors and people openly mocking her as gay and in the closet than she did as an out lesbian. She came out as gay in 2014. In 2017, she alleged that on the set of X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006 when she was 18, she was subject to homophobic sexual harassment by director Brett Ratner:

“You should fuck her to make her realize she’s gay." He said this about me during a cast and crew "meet and greet" before we began filming, X Men: The Last Stand. . . He looked at a woman standing next to me, ten years my senior, pointed to me and said: "You should fuck her to make her realize she’s gay."

Source Page's account was verified by other cast members who were present. This is how she was treated as a suspected lesbian. She did not come out as gay until 8 years later just before her 27th birthday, and she was not celebrated in the same way Elliot Page has been. Page had a number of high profile and critically acclaimed roles, but these were before she came out as gay. Her career stalled afterwards. Most of Page's roles since coming out as a lesbian, she produced herself, and I can't see any career that Elliot Page has other than in being a trans person.

It's a disturbing trajectory. And because "deadnaming" and making any reference to a trans-identifying person's past is treated as a mortal sin/hate crime, the pervasive homophobia that has plagued Page is being written out of history. It's hard to watch. I wish Page peace and health, not hate or mockery.