Yesterday, Katie Couric welcomed Laverne Cox, star of Orange is The New Black, Tiq Milan, GLAAD's Senior Media Strategist, and Chase Strangio, an attorney at the ACLU's LGBT and AIDS project to discuss a myriad of issues facing the transgender community. Earlier this year, Laverne appeared on Katie with in one of the show's most talked about episodes.
In this latest episode, Katie spoke to Laverne about her success with the second season of OITNB and her groundbreaking appearance on the cover of TIME Magazine. Katie also publicly addressed feedback received from her fans about some of the questions she asked Carmen Carrera during Laverne's pervious appearance on the show, which Katie noted led to an inappropriate exchange and, ultimately, a teachable moment.
After a break, Katie asked Laverne about CeCe McDonald, a trans woman of color who was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to 41 months in prison for the death of one of her attackers. Katie aired a trailer for the upcoming documentary film, FREE CECE, of which Laverne is a co-producer, and discussed Laverne's interest and commitment to the project.
For the final segment, Laverne was joined by Tiq and Chase to talk about trans advocacy and media stories that are emblamatic of larger issues facing the community, such as trans and gender non-conforming youth homelessness, the need for access to healthcare for transgender people, and the story of a 16-year-old trans girl in Connecticut known as Jane Doe, who has been incarcerated for more than two months in an adult prison without criminal charges against her.