‘It’s About More Than Our Bodies’: Laverne Cox on ‘The T Word’
Laverne Cox is everywhere these days, which leaves her very little time to be anywhere for long. Between speaking engagements and filming the third season of the acclaimed Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, the actress had to squeeze this phone interview in on a brisk walk to her New York apartment, over lunch, and during a car ride either to or from an airport. But there’s one place she should be tomorrow night, which is in your living room, as you watch Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word, which premieres simultaneously on MTV and Logo at 7 p.m. EST.
The hour-long documentary follows seven transgender youth, ranging in age from 12 to 24, as they contend with the usual young adult stuff: dating, playing sports, choosing dresses for school dances. But for Kye, the first transgender Division One basketball player, the “usual stuff” also includes being asked about his genitalia instead of his three-pointers. For 12-year-old Zoey, it means fighting to be able to use the girls bathroom at her California school. For New Orleans-based L’lerret, it means trying to avoid arrest by police officers who mistake her for a sex worker every time she walks down Bourbon Street.
Even as The T Word celebrates the liberation all seven subjects experience after being able to live as the gender they knew they were since birth, it explores the unique and sometimes devastating challenges facing anyone who identifies as trans today. Shane echoes the concern of his mom when he wonders about his dating prospects: “Straight women are going to want to date a man, and lesbians are going to want to date a woman, so who’s going to want to date [me]?” Daniella, meanwhile, is still recovering from the trauma of a sexual assault that was minimized by health care professionals after she revealed she was transgender. Cox shares a staggering statistic: 41% of trans people in America will attempt suicide, which is nine times the national average.
Basically, 45 minutes is hardly enough time to spend with these remarkable people, but there is a live forum afterwards, and nobody could ask for a better steward than Laverne Cox. The 30-year-actress has used her increasing recognition — she is the first transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy (for her role as Sophia Burset on Orange) — to subtly but persuasively educate people, including Katie Couric, on the misinformation surrounding the trans identity. (Recently, she corrected a CBS anchor who referred to her having been “born a boy” by saying, “I was assigned male at birth is the way I like to put it.”) Cox is smart and talented and graceful, and fortunately she was able to spare some time to talk about The T Word.
Was there any one story in the doc that particularly resonated with you, or felt similar to your experience?
They all resonated with me in different ways. Kye’s complicated relationship with his mom — my mom has had difficulty with pronouns. Zoey’s desire to act, and to transition when she did, touched my heart. I’m jealous, actually — I wish I could have transitioned at her age. The hardship that Daniella experienced around violence affected me because of how easily I could be one of the disproportionate number of trans folks who’ve experienced a lot of violence. I can totally relate to the issues of dating that face Avery and Ari. Finding the love that Shane talks about has also been part of my life. L’lerret is just so articulate and smart and adept at building community and a safe space for herself. [So] yeah, I relate to a lot of aspects of their lives.
Overall, the documentary is optimistic, although there’s certainly no shortage of grim statistics and stories out there. Did you want the takeaway to be uplifting?
I wanted it to be real and truthful: It’s not all bad, and it’s not all good. And the good is the courage these young people show us to live truthfully in a culture that tells us we aren’t who we say we are. The reality is that people stigmatize trans identity so for anyone to come forward on national television is truly a courageous act.