Laverne Cox is using her celebrity to bring about awareness to the epidemic affecting black trans women. The Emmy award-winning actress stopped by Buzzfeed’s AM to DM this weekend to talk about the 11 black trans women in the United States that have been killed.
“Your attraction to me as a trans woman is not a reason to kill me,” 47-year-old Cox said. “There’s this whole sort of myth that trans women are out there tricking people, that they deserve to be murdered, and that’s not the case.”
In April, cellphone footage showed Muhlaysia Booker being attacked in broad daylight by a group of people in Dallas, Texas. The next month Booker was found dead. Chynal Lindsey, another black trans woman in Dallas, had been missing and her boy was also found in May.
Cox doubled down on the falsehood that black trans women are deceiving people, which in turn aids in their murders.
“There’s been a market for trans women in the realms of dating and sex work for a very long time,” said Cox. “We don’t have to trick anyone.”
The Orange is The New Black actress is in New York to celebrate pride, and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprisings, a movement led by the black female trans community.
To stop the murders, Cox said a conversation needs to be had with cis-gender men that negate the rumors surrounding black trans women.
“We have to lift the stigma around attraction to trans people, and we have to lift the stigma around trans people existing,” she said.
