Laverne Cox has been a superhero when it comes to the increase of trans representation in popular media, even making history as the first openly trans person to be nominated for an Emmy for her role as Sophia Burset in Orange is the New Black. These successes did not come easy, however, as the actress revealed in a candid and powerful Instagram post the mental toll that results from society’s constant refusal to honour trans identity through misgendering and deadnaming — a toll that even led to her contemplating suicide.
Cox’s message comes in response to a report by ProPublica on Jacksonville police refusing to refer to murdered transgender women by their chosen name or gender, instead identifying them by their birthnames and assigned gender (a disrespectful practice that in the trans community is known as “deadnaming”).
The actress admitted to her plans to keep a note in her pocket that stated her preferred name and pronouns when she was contemplating suicide several years back, going on to state that the act of misgendering a trans person to be a type of “structural and cultural violence,” and that “the police misgendering and deadnaming trans murder victims as a matter of policy feels like a really good example of that cultural and structural violence.”
Read Cox’s powerful statement in full below: