In a video posted on Instagram, actress
Laverne Cox shared that she and a friend were the victims of an
anti-transgender attack in Los Angeles.
Cox, who is best known for playing a
transgender inmate in Netflix's Orange is the New Black, said
in the video that she was in “shock” and “very triggered” by
the incident.
“I just went for a socially distanced
walk with a friend in our masks in Griffith Park,” she explained.
“We pass this guy, and the guy very aggressively asks for the
time.”
“When people talk to me in the street
I usually ignore them. That's just the New Yorker in me. My friend
tells him the time. Then, the guy says to my friend, 'Guy or girl?'
My friends says, 'Fuck off.'”
“All of this is happening in a split
second. All of the sudden, the guy is attacking my friend. … The
guy is hitting my friend. … I pull out my phone to dial 911. All of
[the] sudden it's over and the guy is gone.”
(Related: Laverne
Cox says she is done debating her transgender existence.)
Cox said that she has a “long history
of street harassment in New York.”
“It's not safe in the world. It's not
safe if you're a trans person,” she
added.