Laverne Cox Quotes

It's a struggle every day, to stay present, not to become that ... eight year old who was bullied and chased home from school. Some days I wake up and it's like I'm eight years old again. And I'm scared for my life, and I don't know if I'm going to be beaten up that day.

Everyone is insecure. I think, really, it comes from, like, a desire to want to be in control of how you're represented.

By doing the work to love ourselves more, I believe we will love each other better.

We are not what other people say we are. We are who we know ourselves to be, and we are what we love. That's okay.

Many in the trans community are fed up with L.G.B.T. organizations that continue to erase trans identity or just give lip service to trans issues. We need our cisgender allies - gay and straight - to treat transgender lives as if they matter, and trans people need multiple seats at the tables in the organizations that say they're interested in L.G.B.T. equality; this absence has been painful since Stonewall.

I think transwomen, and transpeople in general, show everyone that you can define what it means to be a man or woman on your own terms. A lot of what feminism is about is moving outside of roles and moving outside of expectations of who and what you're supposed to be to live a more authentic life.

Who you are authentically is alright.

Each and every one of us has the capacity to be an oppressor. I want to encourage each and everyone of us to interrogate how we might be an oppressor and how we might be able to become liberators for ourselves and for each other.

I never knew my father. He was never married to my mother; he was never a part of my life. It was just my mom, my brother and me.

If you have a problem with people living their lives and being authentically who they are, you really should go and do some soul-searching.

We live in an uncertain world and we want to believe that what a man is and what a woman is-I know that. And people don't want to critically interrogate the world around them. Whenever I'm afraid of something or I'm threatened by something, it's because it brings up some sort of insecurity in me. I think the reality is that most of us are insecure about our gender. They think, 'Okay, if there's this trans person over here, then what does that make me?

It is revolutionary for any trans person to choose to be seen and visible in a world that tells us we should not exist.

Quality is my principle and qualified is my attitude.

I'm terrified of saying the wrong thing on stage with bell hooks.

There's not just one trans story. There's not just one trans experience.

Healthcare for trans women is a necessity. It is not elective. It is not cosmetic. It is life saving.

Whether you're transgender or not, most of us get to a point in our lives where we can no longer lie to ourselves.

I honestly just want to make myself happy most, and if other people like it, then that's great. If they don't, then I'm still happy,

We shouldn't demonize the woman who wears high heels and we shouldn't demonize the woman who doesn't wear high heels. We should accept all forms of comportment.

You need names to get the movie made.

I'm a Self-made Woman in Every Sense of the Word

My mother was a teacher. She was grooming my brother and me to be successful, accomplished people.

What took time for my mom was getting the pronouns right and calling me by a different name. Laverne was my middle name before I transitioned.

So often, trans roles don't even go to trans actors. Most of the fabulous trans roles that have won people Oscars, we didn't get to play. A lot of folks have said we're not trained enough and that we're not prepared to do whatever.

When I was perceived as a black man I became a threat to public safety. When I was dressed as myself, it was my safety that was threatened.

When people have points of reference that are humanizing, that demystifies difference.

I believe that when we love someone, we respect them, and we listen to them; we feel that their voice matters. And- we let them dictate the terms of who they are and what their story is.

I was an actress long before I was a reality TV person.

Believing that you are unworthy of love and belonging or that who you are authentically is a sin or is wrong, is deadly.

My third grade teacher called my mother and said, 'Ms. Cox, your son is going to end up in New Orleans in a dress if we don't get him into therapy.' And wouldn't you know, just last week I spoke at Tulane University, and I wore a lovely green and black dress.

I'm always skeptical about representations of trans people, especially when trans people are not making the work.

I'm so grateful that I had the luxury of transitioning in private. Because when you transition in the public eye, the transition becomes the story.

We are born as who we are, the gender thing is something that is imposed on you.

I was really creative. I started to dance very young. I loved to dance. I begged my mother to put me into dance classes, and finally, in third grade, she did. Tap and jazz, but not ballet.