Laverne Cox: I Have One Wish For America

Laverne Cox was featured on a “This Week” story yesterday. In the interview the transgender star told ABC News her “one wish” for America.

On ABC News’ “This Week,” Laverne Cox shared her “one wish” for America. The “Orange Is The New Black” star, who has appeared on the cover of Time magazine and has become both an icon and a role model for the transgender community, told ABC News, 

“One thing I would wish for America…[are] spaces where we have real gender freedom, where we…create spaces of gender self-determination, where we don’t police people’s genders or we don’t tell people that they’re not supposed to act a certain way.”

The ABC story, “Trangender Tipping Point?,” details how the transgender community is becoming more recognized and accepted as more and more trans people feel comfortable coming out.

“So many trans folks have said that they see themselves reflected in this character,” Cox said. “Having your story told validates your experience. It’s like, ‘I’m not alone anymore, and maybe I’ll be OK.”

“I was bullied and I internalized a lot of shame about who I was as a child,” she said. “Bullied because I didn’t act the way someone assigned male at birth was supposed to act. And so I was called sissy, I was called the F-word. I was chased home from school practically every day. There was always a kid or groups of kids who wanted to beat me up.”

And Cox talked about her suicide attempt when she was very young.

“The suicide attempt happened when I was in sixth grade and I was having all these feelings about other boys. And I didn’t want to live,” Cox said. “I’m really, really happy that I survived,” Cox added. “If I didn’t survive, I wouldn’t be here today.”

You can watch the “Trangender Tipping Point?” story at ABC News.

 

Image: Screenshot ABC News