Laverne Cox was home alone on Tuesday night watching news coverage of the election. But she decided to turn it off when it seemed certain Donald Trump would be re-elected, after it didn’t look like Kamala Harris could win Pennsylvania. “He had something like 246 electors. I was just like I’m out,” Cox tells me on a new special episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “I cried.”
She adds with a laugh, “Then I watched ‘Daredevil’ and ‘The Defenders’ on Disney+.”
In the months and days leading up to the election, Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance flooded the campaign trail with anti-trans ads and rhetoric. I talked to Cox on Thursday morning over Zoom for a special episode of “Just for Variety” to get her insight on what a second Trump presidency could mean for the trans community in and out of Hollywood.
Cox tells me that she and several trans friends are so worried that they are contemplating leaving the U.S. “We’re doing research on different cities in Europe and in the Caribbean,” she says, adding that she knows of several people trying to relocate to states that are considered safer for trans people.
Cox likens the possibility of a very anti-LGBTQ Trump administration to Weimar Germany: “There was this a thriving community of queer people in Berlin pre the rise of Nazism. They attacked Jewish folks. They attacked immigrants, they attacked queer and trans people.”
The following Q&A has been edited and condensed. You can listen to the full conversation with Cox on “Just for Variety” here or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
Kamala Harris was very pro-LGBTQ. What were you hoping for if she won?
My hopes were a lot. There’s been a massive attack on LGBTQ+ rights on the state level in this country. I believe in 26 states, there’s a ban on gender affirming care for young people. In 25 or 26 states, they ban trans girls from sports. There are also book bans that have happened in many states of queer authors as well as Black authors, Black queer authors, bans on AP African American history. It’s all intersectional. Certainly I’m concerned about LGBTQ+ rights, but I think it’s not a coincidence that the attack on LGBTQ+ people, particularly trans people, is happening at the same time that there is an organized attack on reproductive rights. There are right wing people trying to repeal no fault divorce.
As a Black trans woman, how do you move forward?
I don’t want to be in too much fear, but I’m scared. As a public figure, with all my privilege, I’m scared, and I’m particularly scared because I’m a public figure. I feel like I could be targeted. I think they spent close to $100 million on anti-trans ads. It’s deeply concerning.
Did you call anyone on election night?
No, it was late. I had been texting with someone who voted for Trump earlier in the night.
A queer person?
No. he’s a cisgender, straight, white male. It’s really interesting and really complicated because this friend of mine said to me that they were sad. As everybody at their job was celebrating Trump winning, he was sad for me. He does care about me and he does love me, and he was sad for me. That was interesting.
We’ve already heard stories of trans people hoarding their hormone treatments.
I’m done with my medical transition, but I have to take estrogen for the rest of my life. If I stop I get hot flashes. It’s really bad. I have to take estrogen just for health. I don’t know if that’s going to be possible anymore. There’s a website I’ve gone to already. I haven’t bought any yet because I’m talking to my doctor to make sure it’s all reputable and good product. But, yeah, I’m gonna hoard a bunch of estrogen. It’s a little trickier for trans men because testosterone is a controlled substance. But there are resources online.
Do you think there is a chilling effect where trans and queer creatives, both in front of and behind the camera, are going to say, “Maybe this isn’t the time for me to be pitching this story. Maybe this story is a little too trans or too queer?” Or we see a lot of inspirational quotes on Instagram saying, “This is the time for artists to rise up and create the art.” But when you’re trying to pay your rent…
I think we can create the art, but is somebody going to buy it? Over the past eight, eight or nine years, I’ve been actively pitching shows, a lot of them trans. Beautiful stories, too. I’m gagged over some of the shows that didn’t get bought. They were really beautiful with really amazing people involved, amazing producers, amazing showrunners, like Oscar-winning partners, really top tier collaborators. And the projects didn’t get bought. It was about four, maybe five years ago, I was like, “They’re not buying trans stories.”…There is brilliant talent, brilliant writers, brilliant storytellers who are trans, and so many trans stories that need to be told. But I have to be honest, I’m in a pivot place. I’m committed to trans storytelling because it’s my passion. But again, I have to pay the rent.
What is your advice for a young trans person first coming to Hollywood now?
I have a friend who has a daughter who’s trans. She’s 16 years old, and because she was able, because she had supportive parents, she was able to transition before puberty. She did a social transition, and she was able to get access to puberty blockers. So in her high school, she is stealth. None of the kids know that she’s trans. If a young person has the privilege of getting gender affirming care that blocks their puberty and they can live stealth, I would tell them to do that. That’s obviously not an option for everybody. That wasn’t an option for me but I think if you can live stealth right now… I’m so scared for her [Cox begins to cry]. I just want her to be safe. At this point, whatever you have to do to be safe and not be killed or terrorized so much as you want to kill yourself, [do it to] stay alive.
But I also would say that when I had dreams of having a mainstream acting career as a trans person, everybody thought I was crazy. I remember in 2011, I had done this independent film, and I went back to Lucky Chang’s [a legendary drag restaurant in New York City] and I was talking to one of the drag queens. I was like, “Oh my god, I just did this independent movie, and I just think I had my Oscar scene.” And she was like, “Yeah, girl, right.” Like, “This Laverne is delusional.” But look, I don’t have an Oscar yet, but it happened. I have a career as a working actor and producer and other things. Nobody thought that was possible. So always follow your dreams. Never give up on your dreams, no matter what the circumstances. I would also say, learn the business, learn the market and be safe. Find ways to create your own work, create your own opportunities with social media. Have business savvy along with a commitment to the art, and never give up on your dreams.