Laverne Cox Wants to “Rehumanize Everybody”

Photographs by Ashley Peña for The New Yorker Save this story Save this story Save this story Save this story Even early on in the actress and model Laverne Cox’s career, she knew that she wanted to balance her professional ambitions with improving the lives of other trans people. Her breakout role, as Sophia Burset on “Orange Is the New Black,” which premièred in 2013, led to both greater opportunities and heightened scrutiny. Like the trans pioneer Christine Jorgensen before her, Cox began touring universities (her go-to lecture was titled, naturally, “Ain’t I a Woman,” a playful riff on a declaration often attributed to Sojourner Truth) and working the talk-show circuit; her rise to fame was itself treated as a major media event. In 2014, she appeared on the cover of Time magazine, becoming the first trans woman to do so. The accompanying article, which proclaimed the arrival of “The Transgender Tipping Point,” argued that increased visibility had brought about unprecedented acceptance. Twelve years later, it’s impossible not to look back at that more hopeful time with a sense of grim irony.

At first, it seemed the optimists might be vindicated. In 2017, Cox became the first trans woman to be a series regular on broadcast television, when she played the crusading defense attorney Cameron in the CBS legal drama “Doubt.” She went on to appear in such projects as “Disclosure,” an acclaimed documentary about trans representation onscreen; Shonda Rhimes’s hit Netflix series “Inventing Anna”; and “Clean Slate,” an Amazon Prime sitcom produced by Norman Lear and inspired by Cox’s own life. She’s won an Emmy and showed up in a Taylor Swift music video. But she has not received the same kinds of Oscar-bait roles as her cis counterparts. Both “Doubt” and “Clean Slate” were cancelled after only one season. And even as the offers have dried up amid a growing anti-trans backlash, Cox’s personal life and family history remain tabloid fodder. In her new memoir, “Transcendent,” she reflects on her career thus far and the long-standing effects of her painful childhood on her love life. We discussed her experience coming up as a club kid in nineties New York, her friendship with bell hooks, and her hopes and fears for the trans community today. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I saw you speak many, many years ago when you came to Indiana University. It was right after I’d gone through conversion therapy. So I’m curious about your own experience with that.