Laverne Cox at Wright State

This evening Laverne Cox spoke at the Nutter Center.  She was amazing!  In case you aren't familiar with Laverne Cox, she is the first trans woman of color to have a leading role on a mainstream scripted television show.  And she is the first trans actress to be nominated for an Emmy award.  Ms Cox actually spoke very little of her television show or her "stardom", what she spoke about was her identity, who she was and growing up as an African American boy in the deep south and feeling different.  She spoke of intersectionality and how all of her identities overlap and intersect to make her who she is. She's not just black, she's not just a woman, she's not just an actress, she's all of those things and more.

Ms Cox was born, I assume in the 1970s, based on her comments.  Her mother was was a single mom trying to raise Ms Cox and her twin brother in Mobile, Alabama.  From an early age Ms Cox knew she was different and from what she said she was quite flamboyant.  She was often bullied and chased because she was not like the other boys.  She loved to dance when she was a young boy and finally in the third grade her mother signed her up for dance classes, but only tap and jazz because ballet was "too gay".  She loved dancing, it was her escape.  In junior high she read about a school in Birmingham, AL, The Alabama School of the Arts.  They had a dance program and Ms Cox decided she would apply, get a scholarship and attend the school.  The only problem was the school only offered ballet, not tap or jazz.  So, she wrote an essay, got accepted for creative writing, took ballet classes and switched her program of study. Being in Birmingham, 4 hours away from her mother, Ms Cox was finally able to dress the way she wanted and could be as feminine as she wanted.  It was in high school in Birmingham where she finally started to feel "normal".

After high school Ms Cox ended up in New York City at the Marymount Manhattan College. College for Ms Cox, like for many others, was a time of self discovery and awakening.  She met many transgender women at the time and without them she said she may have never had the courage to become the woman she is today.

She spoke of the fear she had and still experiences at times today walking down the street.  Men heckling her or whistling at her then realizing she's a transgender woman.  She said more than once when she was speaking that she still gets scared that something could happen to her because of who she is.

She's not only a role model for the trans community but for women as well.  She's very well spoken and educated on feminist issues and knew perhaps every statistic possible relating to transgender people as well as women.

Laverne Cox's story is pretty amazing when you stop to think about it.  She was born an African American boy in the deep south.  Her mother was single and struggled to raise her and her brother. She made up her mind at an early age what she wanted her career to be and she put steps in place to make it happen.  If all that isn't enough she was brave enough to come to terms with the fact that she is a woman, and not a man.  She has torn down barriers her whole life and done it with more class than most people will ever experience.

I could listen to her speak all day. She knows how to get her point across and has facts and statistics to back her up.

As I sat and listened to her speak I couldn't help but think how historical the evening was, it could have been a public history event....almost.  Never in my life would I have thought that I would be sitting and listening to a transgender woman speak at a university.  I may sound old, but in my undergrad years I didn't even know what transgender meant, I barely knew any gay people.  It was a different world.  Sure, there were stories about people having sex-change operations as they were called back in the day, but it wasn't as main stream as it is now. I don't think there were any television shows that dealt with the topics of gay or transgender.  Will and Grace didn't come out until my last year of college or after.  It was an exciting evening.  It was an honor, really to hear her speak.