And that it was time that somebody stood up and said enough is enough. Amy the cases mark the first time the Supreme Court will rule on lgbtq rights since conservative Justice Brett kavanaugh replaced anthony kennedy, who had written many of the courts major lgbtq rights rulings. We are joined right now by two guests. Laverne cox is an Award Winning transgender actress and long time trans rights activist. Best known for her role on the show orange is the new black. In 2014, she became the first transgender person on the cover and the firstne openly trans person to be nominated for an emmy award in a primetime category. We are also joined by chase strangio, Deputy Director for transgender justice with the aclus lgbt hiv project. His work includes impact litigation, as well as legislative and administrative advocacy, on behalf of lgbtq people and People Living with hiv across the uniteted states. We welcome you both to democracy now it is great to have you with us. Tuesday is a significant day in the Supreme Court. Laverne cox, talk about the cases that are before the high court. It is the first time the Supreme Court will hear any case involving transgender rights. There are two other cases where two game and were fired from their jobs simply for being who they are. This is the first time the court will hear cases about whether or not title vii applies to the community. This administration has been trying to take transgender people out of the round of protections. The leaked memo we remember from a year ago where they want to change the definition of sex so trans folks would not have any recourse under the law, the protest that ensued after that from hhs and hud and in health care. This is really huge, not just for the lgbtq but any worker who might not perform to someone elses idea of how they should express their gender. Amy you did something very unusual at the emmy awards. Was chaseone strangio. I wanted to go to well, describe the scene and why you decided to do this. I noticed not a lot of people were talking about this case. It is the most consequential civil rights for lgbtq rights in my lifetime. No one was talking about it except chase and if you other people. I was nominated for my third emmy award this year and it was going to be i knew it would be a platform where a lot of people would be paying attention. I was like, we should take chase and talk about this case on the red carpet. Edie parker designed my clutch. We went with a mission. Amy and we are showing the images. Lets hear chase on the red carpet with laverne cox. October 8, everyone should be aware the administration is asking the Supreme Court to make it legal to fire workers just because they are lgbtq. This is going to transform the lives of lgbtq people and people who are not lgbtq. Anyone who departs from the sex stereotypes, like the fabulous people here. We need to Pay Attention b becae our lives are on the line. Amy that is chase strangio of the aclu, the plus one with laverne cox at the emmy awards. Laverne is the first openly trans actress to be nominated for primetime, and any acting category. Use that moment where the world was watching that was an interview on e describe further the significance of this case and the Trump Administrations stance, how has it changed . As laverne said, tomorrow the Supreme Court is going to be hearing arguments on these three cases that will transform the peopleandscape are lgbtq all women, in particular, but anyone who departs from sex stereotypes. And what is really astounding, particularly in Aimee Stephens case, the case was filed in 2014 by the eeoc. That is the agency that enforces title vii. That Agency Brought the case, rguing when aimee was fired, it violated title vii. Courts. Through the after the election, the president ial election of 2016, the aclu intervened on behalf of aimee because we wewere concernd the agency and the administration would no longer defend the rights of trans people under federal law. And for good reason. Now we are before the summary Supreme Court. The u. S. Is siding with the employers, urging the Supreme Court to make a rule for everyone that it is lawful to fire someone just because they are lgbtq. I want people to understand the argument they are advancing are so incredibly staggeringly conservative and dangerous because what theyre saying is we won a world under title vii echoes all the way back to at least pre1989 that allows employers to enforce sex stereotypes as long as they do so it gives men and women. Is the Trump Administration and those representing aimees employer, they can fire woman for not being feminine enough or a man for not being masculine enough. Imagine you are a father and they fire you because they know men a are supposed to be working and women are supposed to be the primary caretakers of children. That is the world they want. This is a radical transformation that affects the law they are asking for. Amy i want to go back to aimee , speaking a at an aclu News Conference last week. She explained her decision to come out as a transgender woman. Ing toave been liv lives, one at home and one in public and when it work. In the beginning, that was not so bad. Times time goes on in his progressed, i got to the point that living two lives, being two people was becoming downright impossible. That i could not keep going that way. And things came to a head in november 2012. When i stood in the backyard with a gun to my chest, pondering the question if i cant go forward and i cant go backwards, where does that leave me . And if this is all i have to look forward to, then what is the point continuing . Thatn that our, going over and over that in my mind, i and i realized that i liked me too much to get disappeared. Amy that is Aimee Stephens, the woman behind the first transgender civil rights case to go before the Supreme Court. Talk about the journey Aimee Stephens case took through the courts until now. Aimee stephens case was filed in federal court. Theyon the lower courts, rolled in her favor as the majority of federal courts have for trans litigants. Decades thattwo firing someone or discriminating against someone because they are discrimination under the law as well as a prohibition on the violation of probation on sex stereotypes. She won below. The court said you cannot fire someone just because they are transgender. Then it was the employer in the United States that are before the Supreme Court arguing for a rule that it is in fact lawful to fire someone for being transgender and we represent aimee. Something that is poignant about aimees remarks in the letter she sent her employer, she was going to be the same person come the same valued employee she was living this deeply painful lie. She needed to be who she was. We only get one chance to live our lives. She was going to be an even better worker because she was going to not have to hide this core truth of herself. She has the courage it comes out and gets fired and has been the last six years fighting the termination while she faces no job, lost her health care. Her health care is into applying in decline. Hopefully we can appeal to the court on the simple proposition that congress wrote abroad law that prohibits sex discrimination and it covers trans people as most lower courts have held. Amy were going to go to break and come back to talk about the violence against trans people and how you think this links. We are speaking with chase strangio Deputy Director for , trans justice aclu lgbt hiv , project. An Actress Laverne Cox. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Our guests are Actress Laverne Cox and the aclus chase strangio. I want to ask about the violence against trans women. Last month, julia jamar, an African American trans woman, was murdered in kansas city, kansas. Shes at least the 19th transgender person to be murdered in the u. S. This year. 13 died from gun violence and the majority are women of color. Jaleyahjamars killing followed the murder of 32yearold Brooklyn Lindsey in kansas city, missouri, in june. Kansas city, missouri, in june. This comes after an assault in portland, oregon, of a transgender woman named atlas marshall. Marshall was attacked by a man shouting homophobic and transphobic slurs, leaving her with bruises on her head and knees. Laverne cox you have long spoken out on this issue. Talk about the climate in this country today. It is really hard for me to continue to talk about the murders of trans women of color. I was talking to my Makeup Artist who is also trans. Started transitioning medically 1998. I told her this is a reality in my life. In 1998, there were trans people being murdered all around me. The same fear, will i be next . I remember going to a memorial for a trans woman in new york city who was stabbed outside the port authority. For my entire life as a trans woman, for 21 years, i have been toring about going memorials and the trauma of that havedont actually even words for the trauma of that. I think about black people in general who have watched our people be murdered in the streets and the collective trauma of that. I disassociated from it so much because it is too much. It is way too much. We live in a culture that stigmatizes trans people, tell us who we arent who we say we are. Aimee read a brief on stephens case, they bent over backwards to not use female pronouns to refer to Aimee Stephens. There is this consistent they are consistent in miss jane during her. We are somehow fraudulent. And when we have an administration, we have Government Policies that continually stigmatize us, it makes it ok for the person on the street who sees a trans person and decides we should not exist anymore. I am really at a loss because i know it is intersectional. I know it is about employment, health care, homelessness and having access to all of these things to keep us out of harms way that so many of us do not have access to. The Unemployment Rate in the Trans Community is three times the national average. The majority of us make less than 10,000 a year. When you cannot make a living, you find yourself homeless, that makes you more of a target of violence. There are so many things we have to do as a culture to end this violence. Showing up tomorrow to the Supreme Court, letting your friends and family know it is not ok to discriminate against when we are, that living our lives, walking down the street, when men find ourselves find themselves attracted to me and they would get upset. I talked about a case of one woman who was walking down the street 2013 and two men that called her and realized she was trans and beat her until she died. We should not be killed simply for being who we are. We deserve civil rights. We deserve to be able to work and to live and to thrive. So the targeting that this administration has done one of the very first things that Jeff Sessions did in his justice resendent in 2017 was the guidelines of the Obama Administration set forth for transgender children in the United States of america. The military band happen and then so many of these other things. And that consistently sends a message it is ok to discriminate against us. I think part of this is the backlash trans people are saying this is who i am, ive a right to exist. Now we are coming out of the shadows. People want to force us back into the dark. We are saying no, we deserve a right to live in the light. And that is all we want. You starred in orange is the new black. I was a castmate. It is part of an ensemble. [laughter] amy it is the last season has come out. Talk about the importance of the depiction of trans people played by trans p people. You are in dear whwhite people can you keep a secret. Talk about the importance of being front and center with who you are. We have to change the narrative. 84 ofng to glaad, americans dont know a trans person. What we learn is in the media. How we are represented in the media is crucially important to our life chances. What was amazing about orange is the new black, when we started in 2013, there were no openly trans people with recurring roles. Which is remarkable. I think we need more and we need more stories. Theres a backlash against our existence. If we can continue to tell stories and continue to have artists come forward and tell our stories courageously, what is exceptional about the three projects he listed that im is i am not playing trans characters in any of those. I am an openly trans actress and im not playing trans characters. That feels remarkable and it feels like this insane progress. In some ways we have the best of times and worst of times where i get to thrive as an openly trans black woman which is unheard of. We could not have imagined it 10 years ago. But at the same time, we have these insane murders that keep happening in record numbers. We see these policies. It is this Holding Space for both these realities. Isis really intense. And it i think it is important to celebratew ins and victories, but also important to understand that just because there trans people on billboards and magazine covers that theyre not trying to take our rights away and theres been a concerted effort. Trans people have been deeply scapegoated by conservatives for many years, i think since Marriage Equality became the law of the land. People become more visible, people are becoming upset. Theyre like, we have to target this group of people. As chase said earlier, it doesnt just have implications for trans people, it has implications for everyone because when you discriminate against trans people, it makes it ok to discriminate against everybody else. The decision in 1989, i think it said a woman at Price Waterhouse was denied a promotion because her employers. She was too masculine. Her case went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court said in forcing sex stereotypes is sex discrimination. What this administration arguing, it is ok to enforce those sex stereotypes. If we lose this, it will be ok for them to say you are not the right kind of woman or the right kind of man, even if youre not transgender or lgbtq . That is not the kind of america i want to live in. It is not the kind of country any of us should be living in. Amy i want to go to the protests that were taking place on sunday outside the Supreme Court. Women rights activiststs calling for Justice Brett kavanaughs removal from the bench, one year after republican senators narrowly confirmed him to the u. S. Supreme Court Despite multltiple credidible accusatiof attempted rapepe and sexual assault. Massachusetts Congressmember Ayanna Pressley introduced a resolution last month to impeach justice kavanaugh. She told the crowd she believed kavanaughs accusers and anita hill who told congress in 1991 that Justice Clarence thomas sexually harassed her. When we share our stories come our pain,n, and our struggles, we liberate each other. Together we will raise our voices to mobilize our communities and to legislate our destiny. I believe in the power of us. Whenur fighting didnt end Brett Kavanaugh put on a robe. E. Endour fighting wont until there is a real investigation and justitice for survivors. I still believe anita hill. [cheers] i still believe dr. Christine ford. And i believe deborah ramirez. [cheers] pressley. T is ayanna chase strangio, if you could summarize Brett Kavanaughs career in this last year, his judicial record on the Supreme Court and respond to the call for his impeachment. His first terms on the bench. This is his first full term on the bench. What strikes me as most important in this moment is that it is a reminder of the power that these nine human beings hold over our lives. He will be hearing a case tomorrow that is directly about sex discrimination in the workplace, including, i might note, Sexual Harassment in the workplace, sexual v violence in the workplace. So he has s the power, along wih his eight colleagues, to really decide what the law is going to permit, what it is going to require, and how we as human beings in this country are either going to be protected or cast aside. So whether or not he is impeached, whether or not we can look back on Clarence Thomas and alall of the accusations against these individuals, i think what we need to do now is look at the power they hold in our lives today and say we have to mass mobilize to ensure the decisions they make about whether we live or die are ones that we are going to hold them accountable to. At the end of the day, the court will decide things, but it is us in the streets, movements, changing hearts and minds, and building power that is ultimately going to transform the country we live in. We want to hold people to account, but we also have movementd the inside and outside the court. I want everyone to know they have the power to say that whatever happen