Laverne Cox has opened up about having once been suicidal, and the plan she had to ensure she wasn't deadnamed by authorities and the media.

The actor and activist posted a powerful message on Instagram in response to a report from ProPublica on transgender victims being referred to by their former name and the gender they were assigned at birth, and how this "adds insult to injury and may be delaying justice."

The article focuses in particular on the situation in Jacksonville, Florida, where three black transgender women have been shot to death: Celine Walker, Antash’a English, and Cathalina Christina James. The unsolved murders have stoked fears in the community that a serial killer could be responsible, as well as anger over the way the cases have been handled by officials there, including the use of the victims' former names.

ProPublica notes that Jacksonville is not alone, however.

It found that across the United States “some 65 different law enforcement agencies have investigated murders of transgender people since Jan. 1, 2015. And in 74 of 85 cases, victims were identified by names or genders they had abandoned in their daily lives.”

Cox took to Instagram to respond to the findings and reveal that she worried about the "act of violence" of deadnaming when she was struggling with suicidal ideation.

"Many years ago when I was contemplating suicide, I was planning to have a note in my pocket at the time of my death and several other notes in my home which would state my name, preferred gender pronouns and that I should be referred to as a woman in my death," she wrote.

"Being misgendered and deadnamed in my death felt like it would be the ultimate insult to the psychological and emotional injuries I was experiencing daily as a black trans woman in New York City, the injuries that made me want to take my own life," Cox added.

She explained that while she used to post about the murders of transgender people, she has done less of that recently as it has been "retraumatizing for me to constantly live in this space of death, murder and the injustices that lead to these deaths," and that after reading the ProPublica report she "sobbed and wept for all the trans people who have been murdered and those experiencing direct, cultural and structural violence."

"I wept because I haven't been allowing myself to. I wept for all of the violence I have experienced in my own life," she continued.

"I am angered, saddened and enraged that the police in Jacksonville, Florida and other jurisdictions don't have policies in place to respect the gender identities of trans folks when they have been MURDERED. This misgendering and deadnaming also impedes the investigations into these murders. Injustice on top of injustice!

"I have been saying for years that misgendering a trans person is an act of violence. When I say that I am referring to cultural and structural violence. The police misgendering and deadnaming trans murder victims as a matter of policy feels like a really good example of that cultural and structural violence."

Read her full post below.