Laverne Cox just shut down a transphobic activist on live TV

Transgender rights activist Laverne Cox had some powerful words to say about Trump's new trans policy.

Laverne Cox, who plays Sophia Burset on acclaimed Netflix show Orange is the New Black, appeared on MSNBC show Hardball with Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Centre for Transgender Equality.

They were joined by Travis Weber, the director of the Centre for Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council and anti-trans activist.

The panel was discussing Trump's most recent order and the case of Gavin Grimm, a transgender teenager from Virginia whose fight to use his bathroom of choice will be heard in the Supreme Court.

Trump has axed Obama's federal guidelines which instructed schools to allow transgender pupils to use whichever bathroom / changing room they choose.

The move against this trans-inclusive policy, which was implemented only last year, is thought by many to turn back the clock on progress for trans and LGBTQ equality.

The show's host, Chris Matthews, asked Weber flat out whether he thought that Cox should use the men's toilet.

To which he replied:

So...

...and would not give a straight yes or no answer.

Weber last appeared on 'Hardball' in 2016, and was asked ten times which bathroom trans activist Jenny Boylan should use. He couldn't answer then, either.

So Keisling answered for him:

Travis knows that if Laverne and I came into the men's room with him, he would be entirely freaked out. Laverne and I cannot use the men's room, should not use the men's room, and by the way, if we want to go back to how it's been for decades, we will leave this stuff alone and allow people to just be adults about it.

Weber finally responded that a young girl in a locker room is at risk if "someone with male genitalia" comes in.

Of course they're gonna be harmed [...] their rights are not being protected here.

He also argued that ruling on transgender rights should be kept at a local rather than nationwide level, and (ironically) cited Title IX (part of 1972's Education Amendments Act), which prohibits sex / gender discrimination.

Which is when Cox stepped in to school Weber with these words:

I think it's important, when we have conversations with and about transgender people, that we do not reduce us to body parts. We are more than the sum of our parts. 

And it's so deeply objectifying and dehumanising to talk about trans people and reduce us to body parts. That is really disturbing.

We need to look at the evidence.

We need to look at all the hundreds of localities all over the country that have public accommodations protections, and that's really what we're talking about, for trans people. 

And everything that he's claiming happens actually doesn't happen.

Instead, trans people feel as if they have a right to exist in society.

My transition was about me existing in public space and thriving in society. And because I was able to do that, I've been able to thrive.

That's all we want. 

Watch the full clip here:

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