Thanks to the work of activists like Laverne Cox, public perception of what it means to be trans has been slowly evolving in recent years. The Orange is the New Black actress has frequently spoken out about her experience, and at the WE Day event in Los Angeles on Thursday, she talked about transitioning at a time when that ideally meant "blending in."

"Back when I started transitioning," Cox said, "way back in the day, the goal of transitioning was to blend in, to never let anybody know that you were transgender. And I never blended in. Could you imagine?" Unfortunately, trans people still often need to hide, she said, and it's something that needs to change.

"I had finally accepted myself," Cox explained of that difficult time. "I'd taken the medical steps to live more authentically, and yet I was laughed at, misgendered, and harassed everywhere I went. I never felt safe leaving my home." But she fought back with truth and integrity. "I knew that living my truth was way, way better than living a lie."

"I knew that living my truth was way, way better than living a lie."

Yet safety and acceptance often elude trans people—particularly transgender women of color. Suicide rates are high in the trans community, as are reports of hate violence. "The past three years have been the deadliest on record for trans people," Cox said, "especially trans women of color, like me. Luckily I survived, because a lot of girls like me don't survive."

Cox says it's important to acknowledge the challenges trans people face, and not expect them to hide who they are. "I believe it's important to publicly claim all these components of who I am with pride because I've not always been able to do so," Cox said. "Growing up in Mobile, Alabama, I think I can safely say there was nobody else like me. Now, sure, I have a twin brother, but in many ways our similarities were superficial, because the way that I saw myself and the way that world saw me were two very different things. Although I was assigned male at birth, I always knew that I was a girl. But I was bullied and shamed for how feminine I was. My gender was constantly policed by the other kids at school, by my teachers, by folks in church, and by my mother, and it kept me from really claiming my girlhood."

Thanks to a lot of hard work and time, Cox says she no longer feels the need to fit in with anyone else's expectations of how she should look. "It took me many years," she said, "to accept, to fully internalize, that if someone can look at me and tell I'm trans, that's not only okay—that's beautiful, because trans is beautiful. I am not beautiful despite my big hands, my big feet, my wide shoulders, my height, my deep voice and all the things that make me beautifully and noticeably trans. I am beautiful because of those things."

Her message isn't only for trans people, Cox said. "We live in a world that constantly tells women we are not enough—we aren't skinny enough, young enough, pretty enough, smart enough, white or black enough, the texture of our hair isn't straight or curly enough. All these messages tell women, and particularly women of color, that we are not enough. I've got to tell you, I struggled with this stuff every single day. But for today, I have to tell myself that this is it—this is who I am and what I look like. Today I have to look in the mirror and say not only that this is enough, but that this is beautiful."

Antonia Blyth Antonia Blyth is a British writer based in LA, who writes about entertainment and celebrities.

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