Laverne Cox turns talking head on Trump’s bathroom order

Plenty of pundits and celebs have weighed in on President Donald Trump’s plan to lift an Obama-era action that allowed transgender students to use school bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. But “Orange is the New Black” actress Laverne Cox has quickly become a go-to voice on the issue (cable bookers, take note).

She phoned into ABC’s “The View” on Thursday morning with polished talking points: “These bathroom laws are about whether trans people have the right to exist in public space,” she said. “It is not a states’ rights issue; it is a civil rights issue.”

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter the same day, Cox said, “Our government is not acknowledging the humanity of trans people, not acknowledging that we are who we say we are.”

Hours later, she appeared on MSNBC’s “Hardball” — that crucible of Beltway punditry - where she faced off against conservative activist Travis Weber.

When Weber brought up a scenario in which a 14-yearold girl is in a locker room “and someone comes in with male genitalia … of course they’re going to be harmed,” Cox wasn’t having it.

“I think it’s important when we have conversations with and about transgender people that we do not reduce us to body parts,” she said. “We are more than the sum of our parts, and it’s so deeply objectifying and dehumanizing to talk about trans people and reduce us to body parts.”