Last week, "Orange is the New Black" actress and gay rights activist, Laverne Cox delivered a speech at the 2014 United States Conference on AIDS in San Diego, California about why she chooses not to disclose her HIV status.

The Huffington Post reports, Cox explained that being a transgender woman of color immediately raises the stigma that she is HIV positive although she later revealed that she is HIV negative.

Despite testing negative for HIV, Cox admitted that she feared "that at some point she would test positive for HIV, because of her experience growing up in Alabama, Gay News Network reports.

Cox also expressed her feelings on why sex "should be decriminalized."

Check out Laverne Cox's compelling speech below.

Since becoming one of the many breakout stars of "Orange is the New Black," Cox has made it her mission to correct and denounce stigmas related to her sexual identity and uplift the LGBTQ community.

Cox's latest project to shed light on the transgender community is her upcoming MTV documentary, "The T Word" that delves into the lives and struggles of transgender youth across various cities in the U.S., Mashable reports.

Back in May, Cox told MTV that part of her decision to create a documentary about transgender youth stemmed from the letters she's received from trans-students thanking her for inspiring them to be themselves and be proud of who they are.

"Trans students have said; 'now I can have a point of reference when I talk about who I am,' " Cox told MTV News.

One of the featured individuals in documentary is 12-year-old Zoey who struggles with students and school administrators not acknowledging her as a girl at her new school in California.

"The T Word" premieres on MTV and LOGO on Oct. 17 at 7pm EST.

Following the documentary's premiere, Cox and MTV correspondent, SuChin Pak will conduct a television post forum called "Trans-Forum" that will allow audience members to ask questions and get answers to transgender related inquiries.

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