Laverne Cox, a transgender and Emmy-nominated actress, most known for her role on the hit Netflix show “Orange is the New Black,” spoke at The Missouri Theatre yesterday. It was unsurprisingly a full house.
The speech was preceded by a brief introduction of Cox, highlighting her achievements as an actress, writer, producer and transgender activist. When Cox came on stage, she greeted the audience with the classic M-I-Z, Z-O-U cheer.
Cox started her night by summarizing what trans women (trans women of color, specifically) go through. She stated that homicide is highest in trans women, with 67 percent of those homicides involving trans women of color. She also said that 78 percent of trans women experience harassment at some point in their lives.
Cox spoke about where she got the title of her event “Ain’t I a Woman?” She brought up various feminist role models that shared the same general idea in their advocacy, such as Sojourner Truth, a woman who made a speech of the same name in 1851; Belle Hooks, writer of a book titled “Ain’t I a Woman”; and Jude Butler.
Cox focused mostly on her life growing up as a trans woman of color. She was born May 29, 1984 in Mobile, Ala. to a single mother. She has a younger identical twin brother, M. Lamar. Her mother worked two or three jobs to keep them stable.
Bullying and harassment were not unknown to Cox. Throughout her entire school career she was berated with anti-gay slurs, mostly because of her gender expression and how it didn’t match the “gender binary.”
“We have to begin to ask ourselves how not to be the gender police today,” she said.
Cox said that puberty was a dark time for her. She found out during this time that she was not “normal” and that she felt like she was a burden on her family. She attempted to commit suicide by swallowing a bottle of pills. Luckily, she survived.
“Forty-one percent of all trans people have attempted suicide,” Cox said. “That’s a huge amount compared to the one percent of the rest of the population.”
Cox eventually got a scholarship to the Alabama School of Fine Arts where she studied dancing. During this time she was able to experiment with her clothing by collecting clothes from local thrift stores.
“I’d go to the Salvation Army and create my own ‘Salvation Armani,’” Cox said.
She eventually made it to New York City where she finally found herself and realized that she was a transgender woman. Cox watched Tina Sparkles, another trans woman, transform from male to female flawlessly. It drove Cox to finally begin her transition.
“If Tina can do this, what can I do?” she said.
Maddy Cihak, an MU freshman, attended the event Monday night. She said that it’s “almost unheard of” today for a trans woman of color to be such a breakthrough in the media.
“She’s an icon,” Cihak said. “She’s just an incredible woman.”
Cihak said that she views Cox as a trailblazer for the trans community. She said that Cox’s achievements have gained much support for the trans community, and it instills in her a new faith in humanity.
Cihak said that the event was not what she expected.
“It was what I expected, but it wasn’t,” Cihak said. “I didn’t realize just how incredible she really was. It was very emotional and moving, especially when she was talking about the hardships trans women go thorugh.”
Cihak went to the event to gain more experience and knowledge about the trans community. One of her closest friends is a trans man.
“My ‘little brother’ on my old high school marching band is trans,” Cihak said. “I was one of the first people he came out to, and it exposed me to the trans community, so I naturally wanted to learn more.”
Cox closed the night with some words of advice.
“Pronouns matter. Don’t tell somebody who they are,” Cox said. “Calling a trans woman a man is an act of violence. But always remember: everybody deserves love.”
(First photo by Justin Bohm, second photo of Cox as Sophia in “Orange is the New Black”)