She's a trailblazer for transgender women of color in Hollywood and a fierce advocate for marginalized communities.
This is the life of Laverne Cox.
This is the life of Laverne Cox.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00If Laverne Cox can live her dreams, maybe anything is possible.
00:03♪
00:19We live in a world that constantly tells women we aren't enough,
00:22but for today, I have to tell myself that this is it.
00:25This is who I am and what I look like.
00:29Today, today I have to look in the mirror and say
00:33not only that this is enough, but that this is beautiful.
00:37♪
00:54Bullied because of my gender expression.
00:56Because I didn't act the way someone assigned male at birth was supposed to act.
01:01And so I was called sissy, I was called the F word,
01:04I was chased home from school practically every day.
01:06♪
01:25The only way that I was able to accept my womanhood
01:28was when I finally moved to New York and actually met the first transgender women I would meet.
01:32♪
01:47When I saw her on television, I understood that this is possible.
01:50It is possible to be openly trans and to be an actor.
01:53♪
02:05I'm more man than you can handle.
02:07♪
02:15I thought how amazing would it be for this hip-hop mogul
02:18to embrace this African American transgender woman on national television.
02:23That felt like the kind of change I wanted to see.
02:25So that's why I did it.
02:48♪
02:58I need some of these.
03:00I made my own couture.
03:03Commissary don't carry a size 13.
03:05♪
03:14As I walked in the processional to this stage,
03:16I couldn't help but think that four years ago,
03:20four short years ago,
03:22I had not booked an acting job in almost a year.
03:26And I was thinking about, this time it was May of 2012,
03:30I was thinking about going back to graduate school
03:33because maybe the acting thing was not going to work out for me.
03:36♪
03:48Oh my goodness, you have like photos of me.
03:51It's a dream come true being on such a popular show
03:54and the show has completely changed my life for the better.
03:57I mean, I'm nominated tonight, which who would have thought, you know,
04:00a black transgender woman from Mobile, Alabama
04:02would be nominated for a Critics' Choice Award.
04:05♪
04:17A lot's happened in the years since we last gathered here together.
04:21Same-sex marriage has gone into effect in 10 more states.
04:25Laverne Cox was on the cover of Time.
04:28♪
04:37I am so honored to stand before you this evening,
04:42a proud African-American transgender woman.
04:47It is my hope that this moment tonight will inspire
04:52so many people to understand that the issues of transgender women
04:57are women's issues.
04:59♪
05:08Anti-trans legislation targeting trans children
05:12is being introduced and in some cases becoming law
05:16all around this country right now.
05:19We are here to demand that our government
05:22reunite migrant children with their families right now.
05:26Our coming together today is a resistance.
05:30We come with demands for justice, for equity.
05:34We come today peaceably, but we also come to fight.
05:39♪
05:51I love history and I love sort of looking back
05:56so that we can have a better understanding of where we are now.
05:59I think what my story demonstrates is that anything is possible.
06:03I think that particularly in my country, in the United States,
06:06there's not a template really for black transgender women
06:09to be successful and to live out loud
06:12and to enjoy this level of sort of acclaim.
06:17So I think my story is one of the American dream in a lot of ways
06:22and it's one of possibility.
06:24And I think that if Laverne Cox can live her dreams,
06:26maybe anything is possible.