In an Instagram Live posted on Sunday, Laverne Cox said she and a friend were attacked while walking at Griffith Park in Los Angeles.
In the 10-minute long video, Cox explained that she was wearing a face mask and hoodie when a man approached her and her friend and “very aggressively” asked for the time. The man then asked Cox’s friend if Cox was a “guy or girl” before he began to attack the friend. Cox called 911 and the assailant quickly ran away.
“It was just really, really weird,” Cox said in the video, which she recorded shortly after the encounter. “It’s not safe in the world. I don’t like to think about that a lot, but it’s the truth and it’s not safe if you’re a trans person.”
Cox repeatedly affirmed that she was safe and ok.
The assault against one of the most recognizable trans celebrities in the United States comes during a year that is considered the most fatal for non-binary and trans people since the Human Rights Watch began to record them in 2013.
