Jun 1, 2026 · 26 min · 15 segments
Actress Laverne Cox joins Elvis Duran to talk about redefining visibility, dignity, and community for trans people in Hollywood and beyond. Laverne shares why representation must go hand-in-hand with…
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Elvis DuranHostThat I was the first openly trans person nominated for an acting Emmy, but I'm not the last.
Um, no one has won an Emmy, but w- uh, Michaela Jae Rodriguez has won a Golden Globe, um, which is historic.
And so there's trans people who are breaking so many barriers, and that makes me really proud.
But with the beautiful visibility that has come since, you know, 2014 has been a colossal backlash, which is often inevitable with, um, when a marginalized group of people sort of comes to the fore.
And the backlash has been devastating, is, is, is the best word I can come up with, and it's hard for me to even talk about right now.
I was in a fitting yesterday with my tailor, who I've grown a very close relationship with, because I collect vintage clothes, so we're always doing fittings and altering things.
And it, um, the headline had something that said, "Trans Tifa" was, like, in the headline, and so I was like, "What is this?" And, um, it was so upsetting.
You know, my therapist always tells me that, like, I really can't do social justice work if I'm not fully in my resilient zone, and this is so...
This moment is so triggering and traumatizing for me as a person who loves trans people.
When I think about our legacy, um, in indigenous cultures all over the world, trans people were spiritual leaders.
Um, right? If you just do a little bit of history of, like, the Māhū in, uh, Hawaii or the Two Spirits and trans folks in different Native American cultures or, um, the Hijra in India, that we w- have been spiritual leaders in indigenous cultures, and trans people have always been here.
And those people who wanna sort of scapegoat us wanna pretend that this is some new phenomenon, but we've been around for a very long time, and it's important to remember that.
And when I am surrounded by other trans people and I see our beauty and our power, that gives me so much hope that despite all of the stigmatizing and dehumanizing and attempts to criminalize us, that we have always been here.
We've been criminalized before, and we found a way, and the, that way has been through community.
That I was the first openly trans person nominated for an acting Emmy, but I'm not the last.
Um, no one has won an Emmy, but w- uh, Michaela Jae Rodriguez has won a Golden Globe, um, which is historic.
And so there's trans people who are breaking so many barriers, and that makes me really proud.
But with the beautiful visibility that has come since, you know, 2014 has been a colossal backlash, which is often inevitable with, um, when a marginalized group of people sort of comes to the fore.
And the backlash has been devastating, is, is, is the best word I can come up with, and it's hard for me to even talk about right now.
I was in a fitting yesterday with my tailor, who I've grown a very close relationship with, because I collect vintage clothes, so we're always doing fittings and altering things.
And it, um, the headline had something that said, "Trans Tifa" was, like, in the headline, and so I was like, "What is this?" And, um, it was so upsetting.
You know, my therapist always tells me that, like, I really can't do social justice work if I'm not fully in my resilient zone, and this is so...
This moment is so triggering and traumatizing for me as a person who loves trans people.
When I think about our legacy, um, in indigenous cultures all over the world, trans people were spiritual leaders.
Um, right? If you just do a little bit of history of, like, the Māhū in, uh, Hawaii or the Two Spirits and trans folks in different Native American cultures or, um, the Hijra in India, that we w- have been spiritual leaders in indigenous cultures, and trans people have always been here.
And those people who wanna sort of scapegoat us wanna pretend that this is some new phenomenon, but we've been around for a very long time, and it's important to remember that.
And when I am surrounded by other trans people and I see our beauty and our power, that gives me so much hope that despite all of the stigmatizing and dehumanizing and attempts to criminalize us, that we have always been here.
We've been criminalized before, and we found a way, and the, that way has been through community.
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