Laverne Cox

Several years into my transtion about a decade ago, I thought seriously about killing myself. Life was really hard. I wasn't passing as my true female self very well. I often was called a man as I walked down the street. I didn't think I would ever be accepted as...

I was so moved by and proud of President Barack Obama's history-making declaration yesterday with this sentence: "For me, personally, I think it's important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think that same-sex couples should be able to get married." This is great news. Marriage equality is...

Many of the trans folks I have talked to were over the moon when Donald Trump announced on Friday's 20/20 that the discriminatory ban on trans women competing in the Miss Universe pageant would be lifted, not only allowing Jenna Talackova to compete but opening the pageant to trans women...

I was very moved when I found out that the Miss Universe organization would allow Jenna Talackova to compete, reversing their earlier decision to disqualify her because she is transgender. The organization's statement asserted that she will be allowed to compete only "provided she meets the legal gender recognition requirements...

Do transgender people have the right to dream? This is what comes up for me most predominantly when I think about the recent disqualification of Jenna Talackova from competing in Miss Universe Canada because she is, in their words, not a "natural born female." She is transgender. Initially when I...

I have a movie opening in select cities nationwide this week. It's called Musical Chairs. I play Chantelle, an African-American transgender woman who is disabled. She's paralyzed from the waist down, but she maintains a fervent sense of humor about her situation and about life. Musical Chairs is a beautiful,...

I started off 2011 by attending the Sundance Film Festival for the first time. I was only there for a few days but got to see the films Becoming Chaz and Gun Hill Road. I left the film festival feeling infinitely inspired as an actress, artist, and trans woman. I...

The function of violence in this world, I believe, is to attempt to put people "in their places." I learned at an early age that violence toward me would be a potential consequence of me daring to step out of place, and I never knew my place when it came...

There's a part of me that's always been envious of Jamie Clayton, who just made her acting debut on HBO's Hung, playing the transgender character Kyla. I have known Jamie for over 10 years. She was my first choice of co-stars for TRANSform Me, the makeover show I co-produced and...

Recently my brother was chatting with someone and mentioned his sister and that she's transgender. The first question this person asked upon hearing this information was, "Has she had the full surgery yet?" By "the full surgery" this person meant bottom surgery. They basically were asking my brother to talk...

Talking to a friend about the recent conservative outrage surrounding Chaz Bono on Dancing with the Stars, my friend said to me, "Could you imagine people calling for boycotts and protests if it were a black person cast?" I, of course, immediately thought of the history of black folks on...