Laverne Cox On Transgender Rights

"Many in the trans community are fed up with LGBT organizations that continue to erase trans identity or just give lip service to trans issues. We need our cisgender allies – gay and straight – to treat transgender lives as if they matter, and trans people need multiple seats at the tables in the organizations that say they’re interested in LGBT equality; this absence has been painful since Stonewall. Everyone has a stake in ending the stigma against trans identities, but gay people may have a more personal interest. When kids are bullied and called anti-gay slurs, it’s rarely because the victim seemed to be attracted to members of the same sex. It’s because the child did not conform to gender expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth. The bullies might yell 'gay,' but it’s about gender expression." - Transgender actress Laverne Cox, in a New York Times piece that asks "Are Trans Rights and Gay Rights Still Allies?" Hit the link for the full essay by Cox as well as commentaries from five other activists. (Tipped by JMG reader Birdie.)