While Laverne Cox may have been snubbed by Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People list, the transgender icon comes back swinging, with her very own cover story.
In the pages of TIME magazine, the “Orange Is The New Black” star opens up about her tormentors as a child and her journey to self-acceptance.
“There was this one instance in junior high when I had gotten off the bus and I was chased by a group of kids, which was, you know, pretty normal. They couldn’t really bully me on the bus because the bus driver could see in the rearview mirror, and that wasn’t allowed. But the second we got off the bus, they would try to beat me up. So I’d have to start running immediately.
So that day I was running for my life, basically, and four or five kids caught me. They were in the band. And I remember being held down and hit with drumsticks by these kids. And a parent saw it, the parent of some other student, and called the principal and the principal called my mother and my mother found out about it,” Cox says as she recalled a troubling childhood memory.
As for Cox’s mission, she simply wants to educate and inform.
“There’s not just one trans story. There’s not just one trans experience — I think what they need to understand is that not everybody who is born feels that their gender identity is in alignment with what they’re assigned at birth, based on their genitalia. If someone needs to express their gender in a way that is different, that is okay, and they should not be denied healthcare. They should not be bullied. They don’t deserve to be victims of violence. That’s what people need to understand, that it’s okay and that if you are uncomfortable with it, then you need to look at yourself,” she tells Time.
What are your thoughts on Cox’s controversial Time magazine cover story and her comments on the plight of transgender people? – ruthie hawkins/@ruubabie
