Members of the UVM community filled the Grand Maple Ballroom Feb. 20 to see Netflix original series ?Orange is the New Black? cast member Laverne Cox speak about her journey to womanhood. Cox is a transgender advocate, actress and producer first found acclaim on VH1?s ?I Want to Work for Diddy? and the makeover show ?TRANSform Me.?Cox made television history when she became the first African-American transgender woman to appear on an American reality show, when she appeared in ?I Want to Work for Diddy,? according to the Huffington Post. Through her work with ?TRANSform Me? Cox once again broke barriers becoming the first African-American transgender woman to produce and star in her own televison show, according to the post. Her speech, titled ?Ain?t I a Woman: My Journey to Womanhood? takes its name, in part, from Sojourner Truth?s own rhetorical question: ?Ain?t I a woman?? In Cox?s hour-long speech, she explored the ways in which race, gender and class intersect and told of her experiences growing up in a single-parent household in Mobile, Ala.She later moved to New York City and beginning her transition from a man to a woman.Junior Parker Malone said she found Cox?s triumphant tale incredibly inspiring. ?Growing up in a gender-binary world it was so amazing to see such an inspirational woman overcome some of the hardest challenges of self-acceptance and stand before an audience beautiful and confident,? he said.Cox said she found solace in black, feminist and philosophical figures that many college students may not be familiar with.One of which was Simone de Beauvoir. Cox quoted Beauvoir in saying, ?One is not born, but becomes a woman.?The second person that Cox looked to was American activist and academic Cornel West in saying, ?Justice is what love look s like in public.??There are a lot more people in this world that need love,? Cox said. ?When we have real empathy for others, we are able to love and accept ourselves.?Cox said she knows a great deal about the struggle for self-acceptance. She went on to speak in detail about her own attempted suicide, and described how she ?hustled for worthiness as a [male] child? by focusing primarily on academics and expressing herself through performance. ?She spoke very true to herself as she described her struggles and obstacles that other transgender people are often faced with,? junior Katie Gardner said.Junior Olivia Bartelheim said that both Cox?s speech and her whole story are important. It makes one think of new ways to look at traditional gender spaces, she said.?Trans people of color need to be heard,? Bartelheim said. As a male child, Cox said she did not feel safe being entirely herself. ?I did feel safe in my imagination,? she said. ?I really believe dancing and performing saved my life as a kid.?Cox attended the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, Ala. After graduating, she moved to New York City to attend Marymount Manhattan College for acting.It was in New York City?s club scene that Cox, dressed in what she called ?salvation Armani,? said she first felt that her ?gender identity was an asset, not a deficit.?It has been 16 years since Cox received her first hormone shot, and since then it has been a long road to celebrity. However, it is with that celebrity that Cox has been able to raise awareness for the issues that she feels strongly about.Such issues include high rates of unemployment, homicide, incarceration, poverty, bullying and suicide that are taking place within the transgender community and in particular with transgender youth.?She is a literal goddess. She is so smart, strong and beyond wonderful. She is definitely my possibility model,? sophomore Caroline Kobetitsch said.At the speech?s conclusion, Malone said that the crowd was supremely supportive. 12