Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox is an American actress, reality television star, television producer, and LGBT advocate. She is best known for her portrayal of Sophia Burset on the Netflix television series Orange Is the New Black, for which she became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the acting category, and the first to be nominated for an Emmy Award since composer/musician Angela Morley in 1990. In 2015, she became the first openly transgender person...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actress
Date of Birth29 May 1984
CityMobile, AL
CountryUnited States of America
It's a struggle every day, to stay present, not to become that...eight year old who was bullied and chased home from school. Some days I wake up and it's like I'm eight years old again. And I'm scared for my life, and I don't know if I'm going to be beaten up that day.
I'm always skeptical about representations of trans people, especially when trans people are not making the work.
I believe if we have something that we love to do, that can save our lives. That can get us through.
The preoccupation with transition and with surgery objectifies trans people, and we don't get to really deal with the real lived experiences.
I would never be so arrogant to think that someone should model their life after me. But the idea of possibility the idea that I get to live my dreams out in public, hopefully will show to other folks that it's possible. So I prefer the term 'possibility model' to 'role model.'
Seeing a black transgender woman embracing and loving everything about herself might be inspiring to some other folks.
When people have points of reference that are humanizing, that demystifies difference.
Healthcare for trans women is a necessity. It is not elective. It is not cosmetic. It is life saving.
So often, trans roles don't even go to trans actors. Most of the fabulous trans roles that have won people Oscars, we didn't get to play. A lot of folks have said we're not trained enough and that we're not prepared to do whatever.
Many in the trans community are fed up with L.G.B.T. organizations that continue to erase trans identity or just give lip service to trans issues. We need our cisgender allies - gay and straight - to treat transgender lives as if they matter, and trans people need multiple seats at the tables in the organizations that say they're interested in L.G.B.T. equality; this absence has been painful since Stonewall.
I was assigned male at birth, is the way I like to put it, because I think we're born who we are and the gender thing is something someone imposes on you. And so I was assigned male at birth, but I always felt like I was a girl.
Believing that you are unworthy of love and belonging or that who you are authentically is a sin or is wrong, is deadly.
We live in an uncertain world and we want to believe that what a man is and what a woman is-I know that. And people don't want to critically interrogate the world around them. Whenever I'm afraid of something or I'm threatened by something, it's because it brings up some sort of insecurity in me. I think the reality is that most of us are insecure about our gender. They think, 'Okay, if there's this trans person over here, then what does that make me?
When a trans woman gets called a man, that is an act of violence.