Transgender actress Laverne Cox has
criticized President Donald Trump's ban on transgender troops,
calling it an attack on the transgender community.
On Friday, roughly a month after the
president called for completely barring transgender people from
serving in the military, the White House issued guidance on
implementing Trump's ban.
Trump's guidance directs the military
to bar transgender people from entering the military and to stop
paying for the transition-related health care of active duty
transgender troops, but stops short of banning transgender troops,
leaving the decision of what the military should do about active-duty
transgender troops to military leaders.
(Related: Trump
directs Pentagon to ban transgender recruits.)
Cox, who is best known for playing
Sophia Burset on the Netflix dramedy Orange is the New Black,
criticized the president in an Instagram post.
“This #TransMilitaryBan is yet
another attack on transgender Americans who want to contribute to
society as full not second class citizens. The psychic effects on a
population who is constantly told on an institutional and cultural
level that we are less than are innumerable and deeply painful,”
Cox wrote.
“This year alone the rescinding of
guidelines for how trans students should be treated in schools,
attempts in Texas and other other states to criminalize trans folks
going to the bathroom, the fake repeal of HB2 in North Carolina, with
HB142 which bans localities in NC from protecting LGBTQ citizens in
public accommodations. Trans folks are continuing to be murdered and
misgendered in our deaths as as we are in our lives. It remains
culturally acceptable to joke about murdering trans people because
our humanity remains up for debate in nearly every facet of society.
But as a black trans woman I come from a legacy of people who insist
on our humanity in the face of horrible injustices. I will not betray
my black ancestors, my trans and women ancestors who rose up with
more depth, compassion, love and fight than their oppressors could
fathom. Though institutions might treat me as a second class citizen,
I choose to ride deep in my first class humanity, bringing the legacy
of strength, dignity, resilience & love my ancestors bequeathed
to me.”
“My fellow trans Americans we are not
Less than. We are anointed. May each of us know this in the very core
of our beings as we fight the cultural and governmental institutions
that want to make us less than,” she added.