Laverne Cox wants trans men added to abortion conversation
Laverne Cox got schooled during a teachable Twitter moment when a fan made her realize that transgender men should also be included in the conversation regarding abortion rights after Alabama passed a restrictive abortion ...
Laverne Cox had a teachable Twitter moment when a fan made her realize that transgender men should also be included in the conversation regarding abortion rights after Alabama passed a restrictive ban law last week.
The Alabama Senate approved a measure banning abortion in the state – even in cases of rape or incest. The 25 white men approved the strictest abortion bill in the nation which criminalizes the procedure to the point where doctors who perform an abortion could face up to 99 years in prison. It was signed into law by the governor Gov. Kay Ivey.
Cox explained during a commencement speech at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, on Saturday that a Twitter conversation led her to open up her thoughts about an issue that was always touted as a woman’s right, Yahoo reports.
Cox said she retweeted a tweet that read: “Woman’s body. Woman’s right to choose. End of story.”
However, Cox’s Twitter followers criticized her because it didn’t include “trans brothers’ struggle in this fight” because trans men can become pregnant as well.
Cox said she first got defensive because of the fan’s clapback.
“I said to myself: ‘Can we just have a moment where we keep this simple? There’s so much going on in the world right now and it is so complicated,’” she said.
“‘Can we have a moment for women? For women to be in solidarity with each other? Can I just be in solidarity with my sisters on this issue? Do we have to make it about all of the complicated nuances of the issue?’” Cox recalled.
But after much thought she said she soon realized that the fan was on the right track.
“As I continued to process, I thought, for the first time, ‘What if I were a transgender man?’ What if I were a transgender man… and for whatever reason I became pregnant unintentionally? If I were that trans man, I would really want to have language that incorporated and included my experience.”
—Anne Hathaway calls out ‘complicity of white women’ supporting Alabama abortion ban—
Sounds like Cox learned that sometimes your biggest supporters have your back in more ways than one.
