Transgender model, actor, and activist Laverne Cox posted an emotionally honest and raw video to Instagram on Thursday (23 May).

Dressed in a bikini for what was supposed to be a ‘fun, light video’, Cox instead broke down in tears when the Beyoncé song Heaven began playing.

‘It’s insanely painful to keep reading reports of trans folks being murdered,’ she wrote in the lengthy and painfully candid caption.

‘My entire life, I feel like I have had to live with the reality of violence against trans people as if it’s just something we have to accept but it’s unacceptable. No one’s life should be in danger simply for being who they are.

‘But if you are a person of color, a trans pr gender nonconforming person or both this is so sadly the case.’

It’s okay to grieve and be sad

Cox continued her caption, writing about the reality of violence for non-cisgender people, and the attacks from the current political administration.

‘I know other trans folks and our allies have felt broken by these relentless attacks. Then the news today that the federal government will deny equal access to shelters for trans people experiencing homelessness,’ she wrote.

‘Sometimes you just have to cry. This video feels messy and weird especially with the wind and the bikini. But what’s going on in this country, in the world is messy and weird. Let’s give ourselves space to grieve, to be sad, to be messy in healthy ways.’

Following the time for grieving, Cox offered her advice for how to go forward: ‘Then let’s continue to plot how we are going to make change in our parts of the world, in our communities, in our hearts and minds and in our public policies that can end the structural and interpersonal violence that’s taking far too many lives.’

A violent reality

Last week, Michelle Simone became the third black transgender woman fatally shot in the US in the span of a week.

Her death is the fifth known murder of a transgender person in the US this year. All of the deaths have been black women. Last year, advocates tracked at least 26 homicides of trans people.

The life expectancy of transgender people in the US is just 35-years-old and it’s worse for trans women of color worldwide.

See also

Trans men must be included in abortion conversation, says Laverne Cox

Trans woman brutally attacked in Texas last month dies in shooting

Man who filmed himself verbally abusing a trans woman sentenced to prison