Emmy Award–winning producer and star of Orange Is the New Black Laverne Cox has spoken out passionately about the epidemic of black trans women being murdered in the United States.

“Your attraction to me as a trans woman is not a reason to kill me,” Cox said in an interview that aired Friday on BuzzFeed News’ Twitter morning show, AM to DM. “There’s this whole sort of myth that trans women are out there tricking people, that they deserve to be murdered, and that’s not the case.”



“There’s been a market for trans women in the realms of dating and sex work for a very long time,” said Cox. “We don’t have to trick anyone.”

Black trans women living in the US are being killed at an alarming rate. At least 11 have been murdered just this year, including Muhlaysia Booker, who was attacked in broad daylight in April and then later killed in May, and Chynal Lindsey, who was found dead earlier this month. Both women were killed in Dallas.



Cox is currently in New York City for the WorldPride celebration, which falls on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, a landmark moment in the LGBTQ movement that was led by trans women of color.

The actor urged people to realize that black trans women’s lives are “being taken away from them simply for being who they are.”