Actress Laverne Cox appeared in the Goergen Palestra during Meliora Weekend to speak about her experiences as a transgender woman. Cox is best known for her role as transgender inmate Sophia Burset on the Netflix comedy series “Orange is the New Black,” although she has also acted in and produced other shows.
Cox began by communicating her identity to the audience, saying “I stand before you tonight, a proud African-American transgender woman.”
She stressed that these various components of her personality are very important to her, adding, “I am not just one person, and neither are you.”
During the first part of the speech, Cox talked about her own idols. She quoted the nineteenth century feminist and abolitionist Sojourner Truth, proclaiming, “Ain’t I a woman?” This was something of a refrain throughout the evening as Cox went on to discuss her gender identity.
Another topic Cox discussed was the danger that faces the transgender community. She noted that the homicide rate among transgender people is much higher than that among the population at large—this statistic is even higher among transgender women, and higher still among transgender women of color. Cox argued that the worst obstacles to the transgender community are the points of view that discredit them.
Cox shared her life story with the audience, beginning with her birth in Mobile, Alabama to a single, working-class mother. Describing her experiences in school, Cox said she was bullied everyday. Cox attributed this to “the flawed logic of the binary gender model,” which she said equates physical gender with gender identity. She also discussed the concept of gender policing, in which society self-enforces a set of conventional gender expectations. Cox also talked about the shame she felt when she was younger, stemming from bullies and from religion. This shame, she said, led to a suicide attempt when she was in sixth grade. This is by no means uncommon among trans people, Cox said—41% of all trans people have attempted suicide at some point in their lives.
Apart from a few serious moments, Cox drew laughs and applause from the audience by referring to thrift store clothes as “Salvation Armani” and by jokingly name-dropping her television shows, especially “Orange is the New Black.”
One of the final topics in Cox’s speech was medical gender transition, including her own experience becoming physically female. Cox recalled that she had begun her transition 16 years prior, with her first hormone shot. Now, however, Cox said that she is more comfortable with people being aware that she was once physically a man. “So much of my work has been about trying to love myself.” Cox said.
Cox ended her speech by charging the audience to have difficult conversations with people so that they can find out more about others and about themselves.
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