Trace Lysette Quotes

I was very surprised that for a while I could only get cast as straight. It was that way for a few years.

Having trans people play trans roles show that we are valid in our identities, and we exist.

It's tough advocating for trans visibility and not being pigeonholed as just a trans actress.

When we have a trans woman playing a trans woman, then you see, 'Oh wait, this is what trans really is. This is what it looks like: a person.' That sends a message to trans kids that they are valid in their identities that they are allowed to exist.

I'm not getting into rooms for cis roles. I started my career auditioning for those roles, and then I went to play trans roles. And now, I feel boxed in.

It's upsetting that it is such a big deal. I wish it weren't an issue all the time. It's funny that people say it's a departure, because I've been acting since I was a child. I've played three gay roles out of hundreds.

There have been actresses who transitioned and nobody knew. But for me, with everybody knowing my history, it will be harder. I'm sure there are some great scripts calling for an ultra-glamorous woman. And I'm prepared to be ultra-glamorous.

Between 'Orange' with Laverne, the show 'Transparent,' and Caitlyn Jenner, obviously we're in the middle of something enormous - a transgender movement. I'm just proud to be alive during this massive shift in the world.

I've been trying to get cast as a lesbian for years.

I loved playing Roberta Muldoon!

These past six years, people have seen me as a woman, not a transsexual. People in the gym, people I train with, it's been great, it's been awesome. I'm just a woman to them. I don't want that to go away. It's unfortunate that it has to.

Cisgender actors don't take trans roles out of malice. I think it's just failure to realize the context behind having cisgender people play transgender characters because we don't see the same issue with sexuality.

There are no trans roles, and if there are, they go to Jared Leto or Eddie Redmayne or Elle Fanning... Will there ever come a point where I could play a woman in a realistic, naturalistic drama and have there not be the word 'trans' in the script?

It was easier to forget, or be dismissive about, transgender issues when there weren't transgender staffers or interns walking the halls of the White House.

What's hurtful is when you have portrayals like, you know, when you have someone like Jared Leto who accepts an award for 'Dallas Buyers Club,' after playing a trans woman, standing in a full beard and looking fully cis male: it is communicating to our audiences that underneath all of that, it's still a man under that.

Access to public facilities like bathrooms is important for transgender people. But the fight for transgender rights does not begin and end at the bathroom door.

I remember when I first came out, it was like half and half, half the female fighters were like, 'I understand why she did it, and I'll fight her,' and half said I shouldn't be in the cage and said horrible, horrific transphobic comments about me.

I don't want the same trans story to be told over and over again. I don't want people to get stuck on this very western idea of what it means to be transgender.

I, personally, am trying to get more and more involved with the gay and lesbian movement, very much so.

I don't want to play only Latin women. I want to have roles in English.

I am proud to state that every national Jewish organization we support enforces non-discrimination practices around sexual orientation and that more than 70 percent have written policies in place covering gender identity and expression.

I'm very interested in portraying homosexual man and woman in my films because I'm interested in their lives and their problems.

After that, I was offered lots of lesbian roles, but I didn't want them because I'd already played the best there was.

If I were to wait only for roles that clarify my racial makeup, I'd be waiting for a very, very long time.

I think it was hard for people to cast me as an ethnic, as an Asian American woman.