Laverne Cox, LGBT advocate and actress from the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black,” discussed her life and issues that she and other transgender people face in this year’s Pride Week keynote speech on Oct. 10.
Cox was originally scheduled to speak at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, but the high demand for tickets moved the event to the Union Ballroom for more space. People began lining up at 4:30 p.m., an hour and a half before the event started.
Brianne Blanchard, the executive secretary of the U’s LGBT Resource Center, introduced Cox by highlighting her accomplishments and what Cox has meant to her personally.
“[Cox] is a goddess of what some might call difficult conversations about gender, about race, about prison, about violence,” Blanchard said. “And she does it in a way that makes me so proud to call myself a transwoman.”
Cox walked out to applause and received a standing ovation before she began speaking. She touched on many different issues she and others in the transcommunity have faced, such as bullying, internalized shame and misogyny and especially the violence transgender individuals face, verbal or otherwise.
“I’ve come to believe after all these years that calling a transgender woman a man is an act of violence,” Cox said. “In those moments that it’s happened to me, I’ve often felt there was a threat in subtext to that epithet.”
She continued to repeat throughout her speech, “Trans lives matter, all lives matter.”
Cox also addressed questions on how non-transgender people could improve the lives of transgender people and the need for intersectionality in social justice discussions. She hopes trans issues will become more prominent in LGBTQ discussions.
“This is about social justice, it’s about racial justice, it’s about class justice and that those are all of the things that we should be fighting for,” Cox said.
Vishnu Reddy, a senior in biomedical engineering, called the speech “inspirational.”
“I loved that as a community we were embracing difference and I was happy the school finally decided to get a speaker who represents not only transfolk but also intersectionality, race, and everything,” he said.
Penina Fitiao, a senior in international studies, hopes to have more of an impact on social justice at the U after listening to Cox.
“I’m speechless that she was even able to be here today, and I’m grateful she came to talk to us about transgender issues because it is important to talk about, and it’s difficult for somebody to be accepted in a society where her gender or her life isn’t accepted,” Fitiao said. “She’s one of the greatest people that I know of and to see her in person today was just phenomenal.”
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