An anonymous user at a Congress IP address allegedly changed Laverne Cox's Wikipedia page because it was "too pro-trans."
Someone from within the House of Representatives building on Wednesday night inserted hate speech about the transgender community into Cox's page. The page originally stated that Orange is the New Black "contains the first ever women-in-prison narrative to be played by a real transgender woman." The change, however, made the entry state that the show contains "a real man pretending to be a woman."
The user also added a link to a National Review article arguing that Cox is "not a real woman." The user also claimed to be a congressional staff member, and said in a Wikipedia talk that certain Wikipedia articles are "too pro-trans."
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After the change was discovered, the IP address was banned from Wikipedia editing for a month.
John Valeron, a Wikipedia editor, issued a statement Thursday morning apologizing for the event and the user's "attempts at spreading hate speech." Valeron added that Wikipedia editors "must stop pussyfooting around this willful, long-term abuse just because it emanates from the U.S. House of Representatives."
Clearly, not everyone agrees with the user who made the change: Cox is nominated for an Emmy for her work on the Netflix series, and she graced Time's May cover, the first transgender person to do so.
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