Nathan Manske
Founder and Executive Director, I'm From Driftwood

Black LGBTQ Stories: Actress Laverne Cox Talks Growing Up Transgender (VIDEO)
Posted: 02/ 8/2012 12:00 pm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-manske/laverne-cox_b_1261377.html?ref=gay-voices

Laverne Cox is from Mobile, Ala. Until recently she carried a tremendous amount of shame about the bullying and hardships that she faced growing up as a young transgender woman:

    Whenever something would happen and my mother would find out, she would yell at me and say, "Well, why didn't you fight back? Why aren't you fighting back?" She would also say, "What are you doing to make them treat you like this?" So I felt like it was my fault.

Laverne told me one of the main stories of bullying in her childhood, one example of the fear and humiliation that she constantly faced. This story involves the steps she and her twin brother had to take to avoid excessive abuse: