Actress Laverne Cox took to Instagram Live over the weekend after she and a male friend were targeted in a transphobic attack in L.A.'s Griffith Park.
Cox said the assailant initiated the attack by “aggressively” asking for the time and then asked, “Guy or girl?”
“My friend says ‘f**k off'. I'm walking. I'm hearing all this is happening in a split second and then all of a sudden the guy is hitting my friend.”
Cox said she pulled out her phone to call 911, but “all of a sudden, it's over and the guy is gone. And so I put my phone away and was just like, ‘what happened?' … When this stuff happens, it's so quick.”
Cox said her friend is fine.
Said Cox: “It's not safe in the world. … It's not safe if you're a trans person. … We were literally just walking through the park. … This dude was looking for trouble because I happened to be a trans person in public. That's all it felt like. This isn't shocking to me – obviously, this has been my life. I've dealt with this a lot, but it never fails to be shocking, I guess. … I've been trans my whole life, I've been harassed and bullied my whole life. None of this is new, but it's still just kind of like … who cares? Why do you need to be aggressive?”
