Laverne Cox. Photo / Getty Images
Laverne Cox has "always felt unsafe".
The transgender actress, 31, revealed she constantly fears for her safety after growing up surrounded by bullies and being physically attacked by a stranger in the street.
She explained: "As a black transgender woman, I've always felt unsafe.
I grew up in lots of
violence. I call it bullying, but it's really violence. I've been kicked on the street before. I took the subway for the first time in a while the other day, and there's just something about being in New York that makes me very ... I'm just programmed as a New Yorker to always be looking around, so I've never felt safe."
Laverne - who plays transgender prison inmate Sophia in Orange Is The New Black - is hoping to raise awareness of the difficulties she has faced by executive producing a documentary Free CeCe!, about the life of CeCe McDonald, "a trans African-American woman, [who] survived a violent, racist and transphobic attack and served time in a men's prison in Minnesota."
