Last night, actress and transgender advocate Laverne Cox spoke to a sold out SURC Ballroom and gave a speech titled “Ain’t I a Woman?”

In the beginning of the speech, Cox discussed how she got the titled of her speech from Sojourner Truth’s 1851 speech of the same name given at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio.

Cox then discussed her childhood growing up in Mobile, Alabama and how she and her twin brother, M Lamar, were raised by a single mom who worked two jobs before becoming a school teacher.

“My mother was keen to make sure my brother and I were aware of the rich history of racial oppression we were born into being born in Alabama,” Cox said.

Cox said that from pre-school to high school she often experienced bullying.

“I was really being bullied because of my gender expression,” Cox said. “I didn’t act the way someone assigned male at birth was supposed to act according to the other kids.”

Cox said she went through a phase in her life where she felt guilty about being herself. One of her escapes from the troubles was her love for dance, and she begged her mother to let her take dance classes, and in third grade her mother allowed her to sign up for tap and jazz.

“Ballet was too gay according to my mother. Something about the tights or something,” Cox said.

Cox told a story about how in third grade, one of her teachers called Cox’s mom telling her that Cox needed to see a therapist because she was fanning herself in class with a fan she bought on a church trip.

“The therapist asked me if I knew the difference between a boy and a girl, and in my infinite wisdom as a third grader, because third graders are so wise right? I said ‘there is no difference,’” Cox said.

Cox discussed how in 6th grade she faced a difficult time going through puberty and dealing with the death of her grandmother.

“I lay in my bed imagining she was up in heaven looking down on me, and I imagined she knew everything I was thinking that she knew that I was having what I thought were sinful thoughts about other boys,” Cox said. “The idea of disappointing her made me not want to live.”

Cox told the audience that 41 percent of people in the transgender community attempt suicide.

In high school, Cox and her brother attended the Alabama School of Fine Arts. Cox wanted to major in dance, but the school only offered ballet, so she submitted herself as a creative writing major and switched her major to dance. After leaving Alabama, Cox attended Indiana University for 2 years before going to Marymount College in Manhattan. She said she learned a lot about herself in the New York City club scene.

“It was the first time in my life that my gender expression was not looked upon as something that was a deficit,” Cox said. “It was something that got me into the hottest spaces in the city and VIP treatment. It was fabulous.”

Cox discussed how the people she met at nightclubs changed her life. One person she met was a transgender woman named Tina Sparkles, who Cox said she watched transform into a very beautiful woman over the years.

“I remember saying to myself ‘if Tina can do this, what can I do?’” Cox said. “If it weren’t for Tina Sparkles and all the amazing transgender people that I met in the nightclub scene in New York City, I would not have ended up in a doctor office 16 years ago for my first hormone shot.”

Cox also noted that meeting so many transgender people really helped her rid her mind of this misconception that transgender people could not be successful.

Cox says she feels lucky that, besides being kicked once while walking down the street, she has never faced any physically damaging abuse. She discussed the 2013 murder of Islan Nettles, a transgender woman, who was beaten in the street and died in the hospital several days later. The charges against Islan’s murderer were dropped.

Though Cox has still faced street harassment, and she was often “spooked” while walking down the street. Spooked is a New York City term to describe when someone publicly points the birth sex of someone they see.

“Early in my transition when I walked down the street, and I would get spooked, I often felt like a failure. People are not seeing me for the woman that I am,” Cox said. “If someone could look at me and tell that I am trans that is okay because being transgender is beautiful, and the things that make me trans should be celebrated.”