Who got to catch the amazing, intellectual, beautiful and fierce Laverne Cox at the UA last night?

At the event—which was sponsored by the UA LGBTQ Affairs, ASUA Pride Alliance, UA Women's Resource Center, The Men's Project, FORCE and the ASUA Office of Diversity and Inclusion—the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance took the opportunity to honor the Orange is the New Black transgender actress with the inaugural Alexander John Goodrum Catalyst of Change Award. 

(Who is he, you may ask?)

Here are the remarks by Michael Woodward, a years-long advocate for the transgender community, who, alongside Ian Ellasante of the Southwest Institute for Research on Women, presented Cox with the award:

"Alexander John Goodrum was a black, bisexual, trans man from Tucson who contributed greatly to the advancement of the transgender rights movement.

In 1998, he published the white paper "Gender Identity 101: A Transgender Primer," which became one of the most downloaded and cited documents about gender identity and expression for the next decade, and truly helped to shape the way in which we frame and teach these concepts even today.

The community and the world lost Alexander to suicide in 2002. His work lives on through our organization, the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance. SAGA envisions a society in which every person is assured of their basic rights and can live authentically and safely at home, at work, and in the community, regardless of their gender identity or expression.

Tonight we honor Laverne Cox with the inaugural Alexander John Goodrum Catalyst of Change Award for movement-changing work in gender justice – for she, too, is a pioneer whose work has brought greater justice and love to the world."