Actress Laverne Cox became the first transgender person to make the cover of Time magazine this week, inciting an outpouring of support online.
“I realize this is way bigger than me and about a tipping point in our nation's history where it is no [longer] acceptable for trans lives to be stigmatized, ridiculed, criminalized and disregarded,”
Cox wrote on her Facebook account, posted with a picture of the Time cover. This is for my trans siblings out there and for anyone who has ever been told that who you know yourself to be at your core is not legitimate. You are who you know yourselves to be.”
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Time was criticized last month for leaving Cox off the magazine’s Time 100 list, despite the fact that she got a high number of votes. Although Time never acknowledged any of the criticism over that decision,
The Wire said that possibly played a part in Cox getting slotted on the cover now.
Fans of Cox and others in the LGBT community were loud in their support of Time’s decision to put her on the cover. More than 9,700 people commented on Cox’s initial Facebook posting.
“About time! Gives me hope for my daughter's life, that it won't be limited by prejudice and hatred!” one woman wrote.
Another woman expressed the hope many in the LGBT community take from people like Cox.
“When I saw this yesterday I totally started crying. I'm just elated. The voices of our community can only grow louder, thank you for yours,” she wrote on Cox’s Facebook page.
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