Laverne Cox flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder, chin proudly tilted up, and asked, “Ain’t I a woman?”
Her question was met with an ear-shattering roar from close to a thousand UMass students, who had gathered in the Fine Arts Center concert hall on Thursday to watch the transgender activist speak.
To say Laverne Cox has had a big year is an understatement. Known widely for her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix original television show “Orange is the New Black” – based off the book of the same name, which is the common read for the 2014-15 academic year – the past year has turned her into a household name.
“I stand in front of you a proud, African-American, transgender woman,” Cox said.
But the journey getting to that statement was a rocky one.
Cox spoke of her struggles early on in her childhood; she knew she was a woman as early as kindergarten. She spoke of the 78% of trans, non-gender conforming children that are bullied mercilessly for who they are. She spoke of the 41% of transgender people who have tried to commit suicide – including herself, in sixth grade. She spoke of not ever truly feeling like herself until she moved to New York and met other transgender women – one in particular named Tina Sparkles, who inspired her to book a doctor’s appointment and take the steps she was once scared of taking.
And when she spoke of Islan Nettles, a transgender woman beaten into a coma for being transgender, the audience fell silent. Cox mentioned the fact that there still hasn’t been an arrest made for Nettles’ murder. “Far too often the murders of transwomen go unsolved,” Cox said.
This past April, Cox made history for being the first transgender person to receive an Emmy nomination for acting. That same month, GLAAD presented her with the Stephen F. Kolzak Award for her advocacy for transgender people. Two months later, she made history again as the first transgender person to land on the cover of TIME magazine, which also named her as the fourth most influential television character of 2013.
So, yeah – 2014 has been a big year for Cox. But all this attention, all the awards and recognition hasn’t once changed her message: it’s time for a conversation about gender.
Love and empathy; these two words were continuously driven home throughout Cox’s speech. She reminded us that these conversations are difficult, but they are conversations that need to happen. Cox said she believes the message behind “Orange Is the New Black” is just that – we can talk about our difficult differences if we do it keeping love and empathy for one another in the foreground.
Aside from her advocacy for transgender people, Cox spoke of her struggles throughout her childhood with race and class. Growing up in a low-income household, Cox said the hardships that came from her race were evident from the start. “Before I knew anything about myself, I knew I was black.” Cox found a love for the fine arts and worked towards getting a scholarship to attend a performing arts school, where she was bullied for being “a sissy,” for being poor, and for being black.
Cox mentioned the backlash Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black, gets for being a privileged, white woman telling the stories of women of color. Cox admires Kerman, however, for recognizing her privilege, taking it and using it to make the world around her better. “In the context of oppression, we find ourselves policing each other,” Cox said. If we can find a way to talk about our differences – with love and empathy – Cox believes that we will be taking major steps toward addressing issues like gender politics, race and class.
Photo credit: 1