Laverne Cox urges inclusion and justice at CU Boulder talk

“Justice is what love looks like in public and trans and gender non-conforming people could use some justice, some love today.”

Laverne Cox, an Emmy-nominated actress best known for her role in the Netflix series “Orange is The New Black,” spoke at CU Boulder’s Macky Auditorium on Jan. 25. The speech was co-hosted by the university’s student-run Cultural Events Board and Distinguished Speakers Board.

“I stand here before you this evening a proud African American Transgender woman”

“It is my belief that one of the biggest obstacles facing the transgender community are points of view which disavow our identities, points of view that suggest that no matter what we do we are always and only the gender we were assigned at birth.”

KGNU’s Joe Richey reports that Cox spoke for over an hour and touched on everything from voting rights to legal protections for transgender people. Her talk included bibliographical highlights and references to work from “Sojourner Truth’s Ain’t I a Woman? speech, Bell Hooks 1981 classic book Ain’t I a woman? Black Women and Feminism, and Dr. Cornell West.

“Justice is what love looks like in public and trans and gender non-conforming people could use some justice, some love today. Poor and working people could use some justice, some love today. People of color could use some justice, some love today. Women could use some justice, some love today. Undocumented immigrants could use some justice, some love today. People with disabilities could use some justice, some love today.”

Cox finished her talk with a call to action for those assembled “Stay vocal, stay aware, stay active.”

Laverne Cox spoke on the same night that CU Boulder played host to controversial blogger Milo Yiannopolous. His speaking tour which has seen protests at campuses around the country has been described by critics as a way of promoting hate speech.