Laverne Cox delivered a stirring plenary keynote speech at this past weekend’s annual Creating Change conference, sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, in Houston, Texas.
Intended as a skills-building event for the LGBTQAI community, the five-day conference generally attracts over 3,500 people a year and features over 350 workshops and training sessions.
The OITNB star spoke of the pain and cultural trauma inflicted upon and experienced by trans* community, and most critically by the trans women of color community. Blending her personal narrative of growing up bullied in Mobile, Alabama, with her activism in the Free CeCe movement (documented in the forthcoming film that she is co-producing, which you can read about and support HERE), Cox reinforced the importance of feeling and knowing that one is loved. “Justice is what love looks like in public,” she says, quoting Cornell West.
Love is, indeed, a radical act.
You can watch her entire speech, below:
