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Laverne Cox has shamed the Republican party for “going all-in on their transphobia” this election season.
The 52-year-old actor, who rose to fame playing trans inmate Sophia on Netflix’s prison drama Orange is the New Black, has long used her platform to advocate for transgender causes and inclusion.
Appearing on The Daily Show on Thursday (17 October), Cox took the opportunity to raise awareness of the disinformation surrounding anti-trans legislation and campaigning.
Wearing purple to honour Spirit Day – an annual day to fight anti-LGBT bullying on the third Thursday in October – Cox pointed towards the surge in anti-LGBT legislation across the US, listing off statistics such as the 25 states that banned transgender under-18s from accessing gender-affirming care.
“Thanks for making sure schools don’t teach about sexual orientation or gender identity, because pretending trans kids don’t exist means they disappear, just like pretending climate change doesn’t exist... it disappears too!,” she said, joking, “So I guess we will never know why my t**s are sweating in December.”
Cox highlighted that Donald Trump and the Republican party have spent $65 million (£49 million) on campaign ads peddling anti-trans rhetoric. One of them targets presidential candidate Kamala Harris over her support for gender-affirming care.
One Trump ad highlights comments the VP made in 2019, when she said she supported “surgical care” for trans prisoners. The ad shows Harris posing next to Pattie Gonia, a drag queen. The campaign ends with the voiceover: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”
Transgender rights activists have said the ads “attack trans people” and only intensify the right-wing anti-LGBT rhetoric.
Hitting back at the ads, Cox said: “Do you know how disappointing it is for someone to finally spend $65 million on me and it’s for this crap? I didn’t want hateful attack ads. I wanted a house in the Hills with six walk-in closets!”
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Cox then draws the line from the campaign noting that unlike the GOP, she didn’t get her facts from “StraightOutOfTheirAss.com.”
“This is straight out of the bigotry handbook, using dehumanising language on marginalised groups provides a permission structure to attack them, because, when people are rendered no longer human, you can take away their rights, [and] commit violence against them with impunity.”
Cox then made light of the ongoing legal dispute between North Carolina lieutenant governor Mark Robinson and CNN, which reported in September that the Republican left a litany of disturbing comments on a pornography website before entering politics. Robinson has denied the claims that he referred to himself as a “black NAZI!” and said he enjoys watching trans pornography, and is taking legal action against the outlet.
Cox said: “If you had told me anti-trans politicians were secretly watching – and loving – trans porn, I would’ve said, ‘Duh.’”
“I’m 52 years old and if I had a dime for every conservative man who’s tried to get with me, I could buy that house in the Hills.”
“Turning us into sex objects is just another way of dehumanising us,” she explained. “And I think it’s time to stop dehumanising and start rehumanising each other.”
Cox then showed a map that suggested that top searches for trans porn are all in red states.
“We see you,” she concludes. “We see all of you. All we ask is that you see us, too. And that you pull your damn pants up.”
Cox’s comments come after Republicans have cracked down on trans adults’ access to medical treatments such as Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) in several states.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis and the state’s Republican-dominated legislature banned gender transition procedures for under-18s, as well as non-physicians such as nurse practitioners issuing HRT prescriptions.
Brandon Wolf, a spokesperson for the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign (HRC), told The Guardian: “The Maga [Make America great again] agenda is one of division, chaos and hate.”
“They pit neighbours against one another and try to divide our communities because they don’t have a vision for lifting people up or bringing the nation together.”
