Laverne Cox wants you to know she’s done debating the existence of trans people
Laverne Cox at the 2019 Global Citizen Festival in New York. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Global Citizen)
US actress Laverne Cox says trans people exist and she’s “not interested in debating [her] identity or existence anymore”.
The Orange Is The New Black star, who appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 2014 with the headline ‘Trans Tipping Point’, made the comments in an interview with weekly podcast LGBTQ&A.
Cox said: “I’m just done debating my existence. I’m done debating whether trans is real. I’m real. I’m sitting here and I have lived experiences as a woman, as a woman of trans experience, as a black woman, and so I’m done with that and I know a lot of trans folks are done with that.”
Cox also spoke about the historic US Supreme Court case that will be heard on October 8. The case concerns Aimee Stephens, a trans woman who was fired from a funeral home in Detroit two weeks after coming out as trans.
Stephens won her case when a court in Cincinnati sustained her complaint, saying that discrimination on the basis of transgender status is sex discrimination, but the funeral home owner is appealing.
The case concerns “folks who think it should be legal to discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community in employment”, Cox said.
“They’re basically debating the legitimacy of trans people, right? That there’s no such thing as being non-binary or trans and I’m just like, ‘I’m not interested in debating my identity or existence anymore,'” she said.
“At stake with Title VII is really, is it legal to discriminate against LGBTQ people? And I don’t think that’s the issue. I think the issue is, should it be legal to discriminate against anyone in this country? And I say no.
“We don’t need to debate trans existence. We need to say that we shouldn’t be discriminating against people because of who they are.”
Laverne Cox also said that what is exciting about her level of fame now is that she isn’t usually asked about being trans. ” I’ll bring it up because I love being trans,” she said, “and I think it’s important to still continue to talk about it, particularly considering what’s going on in the world with trans folks.”
