Content warning: This story includes descriptions of anti-transgender violence.
Laverne Cox says she’s safe but “in shock” and “triggered” after she and her friend were victims of a transphobic attack on Sunday.
The Orange Is the New Black actress and LGBTQ+ activist detailed the violent encounter in an IGTV video, explaining that she and a friend were on a socially distanced walk in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park earlier that day, when a man approached them and “very aggressively” asked for the time.
After Cox’s friend responded with the time, the man then asked: “Guy or girl?”
Her friend, who seemed to understand that the man was targeting Cox, told him to “f*ck off.” The man then attacked her friend by hitting him several times.
Cox said that her friend de-escalated the situation, and by the time she had pulled out her phone to call 911, the man had disappeared. She didn’t end up reporting the incident to the police.
After she and her friend had time to process what happened, she explained that they came to the conclusion that the man really wanted Cox to answer at first so that he could assess “whether I’m trans or not.”
“At the end of the day, it’s like, who cares?,” she said. “I’m in a hoodie and yoga pants, I’m completely covered up, I’ve got my mask on — who cares if I’m trans? How does this affect your life?”
She explained that she initially wondered what she “could have done differently,” before recognizing that it wasn’t her “fault that this happened.” This realization pushed her to share her story and send a message specifically to her trans and gender non-conforming (TGNC) fans.
“It’s important for me to remind myself and remind you that, when these things happen, it’s not your fault,” she continued. “It’s not your fault that there are people who are not cool with you existing in the world… We have a right to walk in the park.”
Though she admitted she has a “long history” of experiencing targeted harassment, Cox said transphobic violence “never fails to be shocking.”
The attack follows the recent news that a Black trans woman named Chae’Meshia Simms was shot and killed in Richmond, Virginia last week, making her the 39th trans person murdered in the United States in 2020. It’s already the deadliest year on record for TGNC folks.
“It’s not safe in the world. And I don’t like to think about that a lot, but it’s the truth,” Cox continued. “It’s the truth and it’s not safe if you’re a trans person.”
She concluded, “It doesn’t matter who you are. You can be Laverne Cox, you know, or whatever that means. If you’re trans… you’re going to experience stuff like this.”
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