By Verónica Bayetti Flores • @veroconplatanos • 11 years ago

Thank you Thursdays: Laverne Cox talks gender justice in new interview

Orange Is the New Black actress Laverne Cox has a fabulous interview over at The Nation that’s really worth checking out, and it made me think of how thankful I am for her current presence in the spotlight. She tackles several issues, but I really love what she has to say on gender justice:

Rather than equality, it’s about justice. What does justice look like for trans and gender non-conforming people? I know that for some trans folks, a lot of them may not want to put that they’re transgender on a form. But then sometimes it does become important to claim that identity. It’s about giving folks the freedom to self-identify. How do we have gender freedom for everyone? Gender oppression is an issue for everyone. It’s about creating systems and policies that accommodate the lived experience of human beings. It’s about accommodating the totality of gender in terms of giving people multiple options in identifying themselves.

Orange has created much fodder for online discussion and debate, from folks understandably upset at the centering of whiteness in a story about prison to those holding all of the contradictions and enjoying its entertainment value. What is clear, though, as we’ve discussed here before, is that it has also created an unprecedented platform for the discussion of trans issues–and particularly the issues faced by trans women of color –on a pop culture level unforeseen before the show.

And Cox is an incredible messenger: talking about issues trans folks face in prison, shouting out amazing organizations like the Silvia Rivera Law Project that are doing meaningful work, and generally being a bad-ass. Thank you, Laverne Cox, for being an open, true, and fabulous voice for justice!

New York, NY

Verónica Bayetti Flores has spent the last years of her life living and breathing reproductive justice. She has led national policy and movement building work on the intersections of immigrants' rights, health care access, young parenthood, and LGBTQ liberation, and has worked to increase access to contraception and abortion, fought for paid sick leave, and demanded access to safe public space for queer youth of color. In 2008 Verónica obtained her Master’s degree in the Sexuality and Health program at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She loves cooking, making art, listening to music, and thinking about the ways art forms traditionally seen as feminine are valued and devalued. In addition to writing for Feministing, she is currently spending most of her time doing policy work to reduce the harms of LGBTQ youth of color's interactions with the police and making sure abortion care is accessible to all regardless of their income.

Verónica is a queer immigrant writer, activist, and rabble-rouser.

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