LAVERNE COX  (1972 - )

Laverne Cox has emerged as a tireless advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. A prominent actress and the first openly transgender person nominated for an Emmy, Laverne Cox has promoted visibility and awareness on behalf of the transgender community.

Laverne Cox was born on May 29, 1972. Assigned male at birth, she grew up in Mobile, Alabama with her mother and twin brother. Cox never knew her father. Her mother was a teacher, and as a single parent focused her energies on raising her two children. As a child, Cox described herself as “very creative,” and credited her creativity with sustaining her. She dreamed of being on the stage. She loved to dance and began taking classes and performing in recitals and talent shows in the third grade. Cox’s mother allowed her to take tap and jazz classes, but not ballet, fearing it was too feminine for a young boy. Cox began to feel ashamed and fearful of her inclination towards femininity, due to harsh comments from adults, bullying and harassment from peers, and messages she was hearing at her church. Cox feared she was disappointing her grandmother, who had passed away. Finding that idea horrifying, Cox attempted suicide at the age of 11.

Cox received a scholarship to study at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham for high school. While there as a boarder, Cox began to embrace androgyny. She then earned a dance scholarship to attend Indiana University, where she arrived as a “gender-nonconforming” freshman. After two years at Indiana, Cox transferred to Marymount Manhattan College and graduated with a B.A. in Fine Arts in Dance. These early years in New York were formative for Cox. While at Marymount, she caught the acting bug. Cox participated in plays in Marymount’s Theater Department as well as a student-directed film. She also transitioned from being gender-nonconforming to “being more and more femme.” Cox recalled in an interview that while in NYC, she saw other transgender women who changed her outlook and challenged her misconceptions, including her belief that transgender people could not be successful. While at Marymount, Cox began her medical transition and began living and identifying as female.

After graduation, Cox knew she wanted to continue performing. She tried for years to be an actress. By 2007, Cox had done several student and independent films, off-off Broadway shows, and had begun auditioning for professional acting gigs. She mostly auditioned for and got roles for transgender characters. After seeing the 2007 premiere of the soap opera “Dirty Sexy Money,” in which Candis Cayne became the first openly transgender actor to have a recurring role on a prime-time TV show, Cox realized she could be openly trans and have a successful career. She made postcards with her photo and the statement “Laverne Cox is the answer to all your acting needs.” She sent the postcard to about 500 agents and casting directors, and it led to four meetings. Cox appeared on two episodes of “Law & Order,” a pilot for HBO, a reality show, and produced and starred in her first show on VH1 called “TRANSform Me.” In 2012, she booked her breakout role on the show “Orange is the New Black.”

Cox’s role as Sophia Burset on “Orange is the New Black” catapulted her to fame. TIME Magazine named her “the most dynamic transgender character in history.” In 2014, Cox became both the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy Award for her role in “Orange in the New Black” and the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of TIME in June. When asked what these two milestones meant, Cox said “I was told many times that I wouldn’t be able to have a mainstream career as an actor because I’m trans, because I’m black, and here I am…And it feels really good.” Of the Emmy nomination, Cox said it was just as important to her as an actress as it was to her as an activist, arguing the transgender community deserved the opportunity to turn on the TV and “see [themselves.]” Since her role on “Orange is the New Black,” Cox has appeared on many magazine covers and received numerous acting awards and nominations. Her other recent acting credits include “Promising Young Woman” (2020) and “Inventing Anna” (2021).

In 2015, Cox returned to Indiana University to speak about her experiences as a member of the transgender community with a speech titled “Ain’t I a Woman,” echoing the speech of the same title given by activist Sojourner Truth in 1851. In the speech, Cox told her audience to have “difficult conversations” to educate others and combat misconceptions about the transgender community. She hopes that through these conversations, people can understand “not everybody who is born feels that their gender identity is in alignment with what they’re assigned at birth…if someone needs to express their gender in a way that is different, that is okay…That’s what people need to understand, that it’s okay and that if you are uncomfortable with it, then you need to look at yourself.”

Works Cited

Aleksandra Gjorgievska and Lily Rothman, “Laverne Cox is the First Transgender Person Nominated for an Emmy—She Explains Why That Matters,” Time, July 10, 2014, https://time.com/2973497/laverne-cox-emmy/

Chris Gardner, “Laverne Cox Explains Why She Wants to ‘Share’ Her Historic Third Emmy Nomination,” The Hollywood Reporter, August 23, 2019, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/laverne-cox-explains-why-shes-sharing-historic-third-emmy-nomination-1233682/

Katy Steinmetz, “Laverne Cox Talks to TIME About the Transgender Movement,” Time.com, May 29, 2014, https://time.com/132769/transgender-orange-is-the-new-black-laverne-cox-interview/

“Laverne’s Story,” Lavernecox.com, https://lavernecox.com/about/

Marc Malkin, “Webby Awards: Laverne Cox to Be Honored for LGBTQ Advocacy Work,” Variety.com, May 10, 2022, https://variety.com/2022/scene/news/webby-awards-laverne-cox-1235262280/

Sarah Zinn, “Laverne Cox Details Her Transgender Journey at IU,” Indianapolis Monthly, January 15, 2015, https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/circle-city/laverne-cox-details-transgender-journey-iu

How to Cite this page

MLA – Rothberg, Emma. “Laverne Cox.” National Women’s History Museum, 2022. Date accessed.

Chicago – Rothberg, Emma. “Laverne Cox.” National Women’s History Museum. 2022. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/laverne-cox.

Image Credit: "Laverne Cox at Paley Fest Orange Is The New Black.jpg" by Dominick D, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Additional Resources

Katy Steinmetz, “The Transgender Tipping Point,” TIME Magazine, May 29, 2014, https://time.com/magazine/us/135460/june-9th-2014-vol-183-no-22-u-s/

Jacob Bernstein, “In Their Own Terms,” The New York Times, March 12, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/fashion/the-growing-transgender-presence-in-pop-culture.html

Erik Piepenburg, “Helping Gay Actors Find Themselves Onstage,” The New York Times, December 12, 2010, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/theater/13actout.html

I strongly urge you to take up a task which, at first, may seem quite daunting - the veiwing of over twenty videos.  Produced by Robert Reich and his team at Inequality Media Civic Action, each one is actually no more than a few minutes long but are extremely informative.  As Robert explains, "We'll look at how the richest Americans actually got so rich, and how the tax system is rigged in their favor.  We'll hear an actual billionaire, Tom Steyer, explain why tax cuts for the rich are so misguided."

Each short video explains another aspect of what is going on in Washington and steps we can take to fight back.

It's time the rich pay their fair share.

View all the videos as you have time.  Go to https://www.inequalitymediacivicaction.org/explainers 

You won't be sorry you did.

COMMENTARY  FROM  A  BADASS   WOMAN

The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote nationally on August 18, 1920, so why is Women’s Equality Day on August 26th each year?

The simple answer is that even when a constitutional amendment has been ratified it’s not official until it has been certified by the correct government official. In 1920, that official was U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby. On August 26, 1920, Colby signed a proclamation behind closed doors at 8 a.m. at his own house in Washington, D.C, ending a struggle for the vote that started a century earlier.

In 1971, Representative Bella Abzug championed a bill in the U.S. Congress to designate August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.” The bill says that “the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right to vote.”

BUT THE UGLY TRUTH IS THAT, 123 YEARS SINCE WOMEN GAINED THE RIGHT TO VOTE, WE STILL DO NOT HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS. 

Needless to say the constant work, over 123 years, to pass the ERA creates a rather long narrative but one worth reading, particularly since there are still more than a few people who believe the ERA is already a part of the Constitution.

The Brennan Center For Justice has an excellent "Explainer" post by Alex Cohen and Wilfred U. Codrington III which provides, not only the historical facts of the ERA, but many of the legal aspects as well. 

Here is the current status on efforts in Congress.

WASHINGTON – Today, January 31, 2023, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) and Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), along with Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Congresswomen Madeleine Dean (PA-04), Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Abigail Spanberger (VA-07), Cori Bush (MO 01), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), and Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI), unveiled a bicameral, joint resolution to affirm the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and take a critical step toward enshrining equality for women in the United States Constitution. The lawmakers’ resolution removes the arbitrary deadline for ratification of the ERA and recognizes the amendment as a valid part of the Constitution, with the 38-state threshold needed for ratification of the ERA having been met.

The lawmakers’ resolution is endorsed by nearly 300 grassroots and national organizations.

A summary of the ERA resolution is available here.

NOW HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO TO JOIN THE FIGHT FOR RATIFICATION OF THE ERA.

Here are four choices for tools you can use to contact your representatives.  Each has different approaches but all are quite helpful and easy to use.

(1) Rogan's List <susanrogan@substack.com>   All the information for various ways to contact federal office holders and agencies.

(2)  Resistbot        Instructions for contacting multiple representatives at one time.

(3)  Common Cause     Put in your complete address and access a catalog of your federal, state and local representatives.

(4)  Jessica Craven from Chop Wood, Carry Water   Sign up and you will receive regular emails containing action items, a script to use along with a link to your legislators contact information.

What I hope you will do is put the information for your two Senators and one Congressperson in a handy place to access daily.  Then everyday contact them that  "it is way past time for the ERA to be added to the Constitution.  Women deserve to have equal rights NOW!"

If enough of us tell them everyday, how can they refuse?

Now don't stop there.  Save the information for the next time you need to contact your representatives on other matters.  AND if you are really fired up about being an activist, share the information and your enthusiasm with friends and relatives.  Yeh!

jj

 

By Alex Thompson  

Ballet and Engineering

Born in 1933, Judith Love Cohen set out from an early age to do things girls were simply not expected to do at that time. She had a deep passion for maths and was very good at it, to the point where her fellow classmates would pay her to do their homework for them. As she grew up Cohen realised she was more interested in engineering and studied at college whilst also performing in New York’s Metropolitan Opera Ballet company.

Though this may seem an odd mix but Cohen was used to being unique – as she went through school, she had noticed that she was the only girl in the majority of her maths classes. This continued when she went to study at the University of South California, completing both her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science courses without ever seeing another female engineer. She studied at night whilst working in the day as a junior engineer for North American Aviation. Upon joining NASA, she was one of only a handful of female engineers employed by the space agency at the time. Not that this discouraged her. She later remarked “I had already figured out that I was going to do things that no [other girls] ever did.”

Project Apollo

Cohen worked on many of the first spacecraft in America’s space programme, including Pioneer, where she worked with her first husband, Bud. However, she considered her greatest achievement to be her work on the Apollo missions. Her most important engineering feat was her contribution to the Lunar Module’s Abort Guidance System, which played a critical role in the safe return of the Apollo 13 astronauts after an oxygen tank exploded on their way to the Moon. The return of the astronauts alive and well is considered one of the most incredible moments in the history of human spaceflight and Cohen was present when the astronauts paid their thanks to the TRW facility for their crucial role in their return.

A Star is Born

It was whilst working on the Abort Guidance System that the story that went viral took place. At the time of the first Moon landings in July 1969, Cohen was already eight months pregnant with her fourth child. On one particular day the following month Cohen came into work as usual when her waters broke. On her way out of the door she grabbed a printout of a problem she’d been working on and continued to work on it whilst in labour. According to another of her children, Neil Siegel, she phoned her boss later that day and “told him she had solved the problem. And… oh yes, the baby was born, too.” The child she gave both to that day was future School of Rock and Jumanji star Jack Black.

Yes really.

Engineer to Author

Cohen continued to work at NASA throughout the 1970s and 80s, working with then-husband (and Black’s dad) Tom as satellite engineers on the Hubble Space Telescope.

Cohen retired as an engineer in 1990 and set up a publishing company Cascade Pass with new husband David Katz. She wrote and published a series of books called “You Can be a Woman….”, which was aimed at young girls and encouraged them to follow various careers in science, with David illustrating. They also published another series that encouraged younger children to practice environmentally friendly exercises called “Green”, and a book named “The Women of Apollo” which featured four biographies of women who had helped put humans on the Moon, including Cohen herself.

Legacy

Judith Love Cohen is much more than an interesting anecdote. She was a mathematician, a dancer, a publisher, a highly talented engineer and an advocate for women in the workplace. Some of the practices we take for granted today, such as internal listings of jobs in companies and formal descriptions for every vacant position, were Cohen’s ideas, with the main purpose being to encourage more women to apply. Upon her passing in 2016, Siegel wrote “she must have influenced tens of thousands of young girls to become interested in professional careers of one sort or another.”

And that is the true legacy of Judith Love Cohen.

About the author: Alex Thompson is a Space Communications Presenter at the National Space Centre.

 

 

Focusing on the struggles, achievements, and courage of those with disabilities during Disability Pride Month.

By Brianna Letendre