COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The transgender actor and reality TV star Laverne Cox said misgendering a trans person is an act of violence during a Friday afternoon event held at the University of Maryland.

Mr. Cox, who plays a hormone medication dependent transvestite on the hit web series “Orange Is The New Black,” lectured about 100 attendees that misgendering is an act of violence and shared an experience when he feared for his life.

“I have come to realize that calling a transgender woman or man, misgendering a transgendered person, is an act of violence,” Cox, a biological male who claims to be a woman, said as the crowd gave him a standing ovation of claps and cheers.

“So often when I experience these moments on the street, I would immediately feel unsafe as if my life was in danger,” Cox explained, “and all of these anti-trans bills that are being quote ‘all over the country’ are basically misgendering trans people and they are acts of violence.”

The event was hosted inside of a church and was sponsored by the Voices of Social Change, a campus program that promotes social justice.