Laverne Cox Explains The Importance Of Gavin Grimm’s Supreme Court Case

Before introducing Lady Gaga and Metallica at the Grammys on Sunday night, Laverne Cox asked everyone — ladies, gentlemen, “all my gender non-binary peeps” — to “please Google ‘Gavin Grimm.’ He’s going to the Supreme Court in March. Hashtag StandWithGavin.” Grimm, who was born female but identifies as male, sued the Gloucester County School Board in Virginia after he was barred from using the boys’ bathroom, arguing the policy violates Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools. “The case is now headed for the Supreme Court,” according to Washington Post, “with oral arguments scheduled for late March, and the case could impact how public schools accommodate transgender students across the nation.”

While promoting her new CBS show, Doubt (the first series in broadcast history to feature a transgender series regular played by a transgender actor), Cox told This Morning co-anchors Anthony Mason and Gayle King that no one knew about her Grammys shout-out. “I did not tell anyone,” she said. “I didn’t want anyone to say I couldn’t do it. So I didn’t tell anyone, no one knew, like none of my people knew that I was going to shout out Gavin. And I did it because I was partly frustrated that no one was talking about it.”

Cox continued:

This is the first time that the Supreme Court is hearing a case about trans rights. And last year, over 50 bills criminalizing trans people for using the bathroom that’s consistent with their gender identity were introduced in state legislatures all over the country. All of a sudden, over 50 bills. And what people should know about these bathroom bills that criminalize trans people — criminalize me going to the women’s room, is that these bills are not about bathrooms. They’re about whether trans people have the right to exist in public space. If we can’t access public bathrooms, we can’t go to school, we can’t work, we can’t go to health care facilities. This is about public accommodations. And so, public accommodations are always key to civil rights. I can’t help but think about that moment from Hidden Figures when Taraji P. Henson’s character had to walk 45 minutes to the bathroom. Gavin had to go do a special gender neutral bathroom, a nurse’s bathroom that was way out of the way. And initially he was doing this, he was like this is really crazy can I just go to the boy’s bathroom like everybody else? And for seven weeks he did without incident. Then they found out about it and they said no you can’t.

I’ll save you the Google. Just click here.

(Via CBS This Morning)