For more than a decade, Laverne Cox has been one of the most visible trans women in America. But the Orange Is the New Black star says she spent most of her childhood in Mobile, Ala., keeping herself hidden.
A turning point came when she was in third grade, on a church field trip to Six Flags. She bought a paper fan to cool herself, and caught the attention of her teacher.
"I was having a Scarlett O'Hara moment, fanning myself," Cox says. "And then later that day, my mother comes in and tells me she had gotten a call from the school ... and [my teacher] said that I would end up in New Orleans wearing a dress if we didn't get me into therapy right away."
When she was 8 or 9, Cox was sent to conversion therapy, where, she says, a therapist suggested injecting her with testosterone. "The idea was that that was supposed to make me more masculine," she says. "My mother, thank God, said no to that." But Cox knew she needed to leave Mobile.
In her new memoir, Transcendent, Cox writes about her journey from Mobile to show business. She remembers being bullied mercilessly by other children at school — a situation made worse by her mother's reaction: "My mother ... instead of having an impulse to protect me or care for me or ask if I was OK, she made it my fault," she says.
In the 1990s, she moved to New York City and began auditioning for roles, first as a dancer and then as an actor. She also started experimenting with gender norms; she began her medical transition in 1998, at the age of 26.
For Cox, writing her memoir is an act of resistance and healing: "After 2023, it became very clear to me that we, that trans people had lost the culture," she says. "I knew this was the beginning of a disaster in terms of policy. ... The dehumanization was so clear to me, and so I think I also thought maybe one more human story out there can help."
Interview highlights
On the anger she still feels about being bullied as a child
As an adult, I'm angry at the boys. I am angry at my mother. I want to protect that little child. I'm just so angry. I'm so hurt. … There's also like the anger [about] all the kids that I've met who are trans or queer who are still experiencing this, and the anger of knowing that in states that have passed anti-trans laws that the percentage of bullying has skyrocketed in those states. … There's the rhetorical piece that happens in the media that is dehumanizing and stigmatizing trans people. And it creates a permission structure. If, like your governor and your state legislators are doing [it], if your teachers and pundits on TV are doing it, then of course kids are emboldened to do it. And that makes me so angry.
On beginning to wear skirts and dresses in college
In high school I read about Oscar Wilde. He talked about creating yourself as a work of art, and I loved that as a concept.
I had internalized so much transphobia. Like, ending up "in New Orleans wearing a dress" was presented to me as the absolute worst thing that could happen to me. In my young mind I imagined I would be on the street and I would be homeless and a person who needed to like do unfortunate things to survive. So it just was presented as something that was the absolute opposite of the straight A student that I was, the human being that I was, who was determined to be successful. So I didn't wear skirts and dresses until college ... but I did start wearing girls' clothes that I would purchase from the thrift stores in Mobile and in Birmingham. And it was such a fun, wonderful exploration. ... In high school I read about Oscar Wilde. He talked about creating yourself as a work of art, and I loved that as a concept.
On being drawn to show business
There was always music in my head, which is such a wonderful gift. From the second I was walking, I was dancing, and I danced everywhere. And it just took me away. … [It was] like a character. There was a person that I could play. So I was in a character and then I was in a new setting. And so all the times we would be at the supermarket in the grocery store, I just loved pushing the grocery cart and then dancing with the grocery cart as if it was like a partner. … Finally in third grade, I got to start studying dance. And that really, that was the best thing ever for me.
On growing up with a twin brother
There's a closeness now. It's healthier now than it's ever been with my brother. But ... we were not a touchy feely family. We weren't a family that said, "I love you." We weren't a family that hugged. There was no affection. So my brother and I, so we didn't do that. ... But we bonded most around music, art. There were periods when I would be in dance class and he would come and watch and critique and he'd give me his notes.
On her twin brother playing her pre-transition character in Orange Is the New Black
It was my character's back story. And the initial idea was that they needed to hire another actor to play me pre-transition. … [And I] asked my brother if he'd be open to it. And he said, "How much does it pay?" And then he ended up going in for the audition, but he had an advantage because he kind of looks a little bit like me. ... So he booked it and did it and he had regrets about it for a while because he has his own work and his own life and he wants to be defined by his work and not mine.
Ann Marie Baldonado and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
