LAVERNE COX

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.

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.

When people find out you're an actress, they Google you.

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

I just have to be myself. I'm not perfect, and I'm going to make mistakes; I might say the wrong thing. I have to be responsible to my community, and I feel like I am, but then I have to not be so hard on myself.

I wanted to be famous; I wanted to perform. Those things I really, really wanted more than anything else.

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

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

I don't have children, and I don't want children.

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.

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.

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.

I don't think there's a right or wrong things in your style. It's about how you clearly reflect who you are; how you more clearly tell the story. Who are you? How do you want to transmit that to the world, and how do you more clearly say that? Then I have a philosophy, FFPS: fit, fabric, proportion, and silhouette. Proportion's everything, really, knowing your body and understanding that. Those things have been really crucial for me. It's about being clear about the story you want to tell to the world about who you are - and maybe a little bit of FFPS.

Just me existing, as an openly black transgender woman from a working-class background, thriving, is a political act. My brother always reminds me that if you are black in America and you're alive, you deserve a round of applause. There are so many forces that don't want us to be alive, and so just being openly who I am, and happy and thriving, is a political act.

When a trans woman gets called a man, that is an act of violence.

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

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

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.

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

I've been realizing lately how horribly vain I am. I do believe that if I'm successful, it's because of my talent and intelligence, but there's pretty privilege in the world - that's a reality. When I was a kid, in middle school, I started going to thrift stores and dressing myself. It was about announcing to the world who I was. That's what fashion was for me, as a kid. You might have an idea of who you think I am, but I'm going to tell you through my fashion choices who I am.

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.

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?

I have always been aware that I can never represent all trans people. No one or two or three trans people can. This is why we need diverse media representations of trans folks to multiply trans narratives in the media and depict our beautiful diversities.

I would never be so arrogant to think that someone should model their life after me. But the idea of possibility the idea that I get to live my dreams out in public, hopefully will show to other folks that it's possible. So I prefer the term 'possibility model' to 'role model.'

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.