Laverne Cox told a noisy, near-capacity crowd at Macky Auditorium on Wednesday evening that one of the biggest challenges facing transgender people is the opinion that one can only be the gender that he or she was born into.

“Yet ain’t I a woman?” she asked the crowd, of about 2,000, which erupted into ear-shattering applause at the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus.

Cox, a transgender woman, is best known for her role on the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black,” but she is also an advocate for transgender people — a group she said is in need of justice in America.

“Like Dr. Cornel West reminds us: ‘Justice is what love looks like in public,'” she said. “Transgender people are in need of some justice. Poor people are need of justice. People of color are in need of some justice. Women are in need of some justice. Undocumented immigrants can use some justice.”

Cox stopped by Macky to deliver her talk, called “Ain’t I a Woman: My Journey to Womanhood,” a nod to the speech given by civil rights icon Sojourner Truth in 1851 and a book by writer bell hooks.

Cox’s talk started late because of increased security. It coincided with a talk by Milo Yiannopoulos given across campus at roughly the same time. Yiannopoulos is an editor for the “alt-right” website Breitbart News.

A couple of hours before Cox took the stage, another event, “Buffs United,” featured a variety of poets, musicians and dancers who performed inside the Old Main building. It quickly filled to capacity, and many people were sent to another building to view it via simulcast.

Co-organizer Sam Flaxman said the Buffs United event was not in opposition to the speech by Yiannopoulos — who has garnered much controversy for many of his positions — but a celebration of the diverse community of students and faculty that is present on campus.

“We’ve heard from a lot of students who are having a hard day,” event co-organizer Sam Flaxman said. “They are scared and worried. There is a lot of rhetoric out there that is very divisive.”

During her speech, Cox spoke at length about coming to the realization that she is a woman and the shame, guilt and bullying that accompanied it and how that struggle is felt by many transgender people.

“I began to feel at a very core level that something was wrong,” she said. “I didn’t feel fully safe at school or at home. I felt safe in my imagination.”

The crisis point came when her third-grade teacher called Cox’s mom and said, “Your son is going to end up in New Orleans wearing a dress if we don’t get him into therapy right away.”

That call stemmed from a church trip to Six Flags and a stop inside the gift shop when something caught Cox’s eye.

“I saw it there, hanging — a handheld fan,” Cox said. “It had peacocks. It was fabulous. I knew I had to have it.”

Cox was taken to therapy as a result, and she looks back on that experience of what she calls “the policing of my gender.” She added that the therapist asked her if she knew the difference between a boy and a girl. (Her mother eventually pulled her out when the therapist recommended giving Cox testosterone shots to make her more masculine.)

“In my infinite wisdom as a third-grader, I said there is no difference,” Cox said. “The way I reasoned in my mind was everyone told me I was a boy, but in my heart, I knew I was a girl.”

John Bear: 303-473-1355, bearj@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/johnbearwithme