The OITNB star gave a rallying call to action in a recent interview
BY IBBY-ROSE MCKIM, IMAGE BY JAY DIXIT, CC BY-SA 4.0 , VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
In her latest The Guardian interview, Laverne Cox has issued a strong rallying cry against America’s current regression on Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) policies.
Trump’s presidency has seen legal challenges made to DEI legislation across the country. As of 15 June, 60 anti-trans bills have been passed. This includes preventing social transitioning at schools and penalties for entering a restroom of the “opposite biological sex”.
Laverne explains that her corporate speaking and teaching contracts, which were key in a world where there are limited roles for trans actors, have now ended. They are seen, just by virtue of Laverne herself being trans, as “pushing an ideology”.
She explains: “These are the realities. I’m not complaining – I’m very blessed.” Laverne has seen mainstream success with a recurring role on Orange Is The New Black, where she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy and a TIME magazine cover. She was the first (publicly out) trans person to grace the cover in 2014.
“I think the important thing to note is that if Laverne Cox’s income has gone down significantly, what about all the other trans people who are not as privileged and as blessed as I am?” she continues.
At the premiere of her new film Animal Farm back in April, she gave a moving call to action: “If we don’t wake up and don’t understand, trans people will be exterminated. People’s rights are being taken away, people are losing their jobs, people are losing healthcare, people are being detransitioned in prison, gender-affirming care is being attacked, not just for children but also for adults. It’s never been about protecting women – it’s always been about creating a permission structure to scapegoat trans people, to dehumanise trans people, to take away our rights and to eliminate us from public life.”
This elimination comes from the removal of trans rights and a lack of protection for trans people in their daily lives. But, Laverne notes, this has all happened before: Magnus Hirschfeld’s research on trans and gay people was some of the first to be destroyed during the early book burnings of 1933 under the Nazi regime. As Laverne states in this interview, “we’re in a very similar moment to Germany at that time”.
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