For months now, transgender icon Laverne Cox has been doing an amazing job of explaining to the world about the diversity and experiences of the transgender community as well as her own journey as a transgender woman. Now, Cox has teamed with Lexus and is sharing even more of her past in a new interview for the “It Got Better” campaign, telling the world about her journey from being ashamed about being transgender to fully embracing it.
In the video, Cox talks about growing up in Mobile, Alabama as the oldest of identical twin boys. Cox says that from an early age she was feminine and that everyone from her parents to her teachers shamed her about being feminine and tried to police her gender expression.
“Your son is going to end up in New Orleans wearing a dress if we don’t get him to therapy right away,” a teacher told Cox’s mother. “I thought that every single thing about me was awful and shameful.”
“The biggest thing for me as a kid is that my mother would not love me because I acted this way,” said Cox as she teared up on camera. “I thought that she wouldn’t love me because of who I was authentically and I thought that I had to change who I was to get love.”
Things eventually became so dark for Cox that she once attempted suicide but survived the ordeal. Cox later came out when she attended Indiana State University but it wasn’t until she moved to New York and met other trans people that she embraced the fact that she is a trans woman.
Now as an adult, Cox has learned to embrace herself as transgender and explains to viewers how simply living her truth has improved her life incredibly.
“Telling the truth to myself about myself is awesome because it’s just a relief,” Cox shares. “I don’t have to try to be something I’m not — I can just be. Who you are authentically is alright. The shame is what kills you. Believing you are unworthy of love and belonging — that who you are authentically is a sin or is wrong — is deadly. Who you are is beautiful and amazing.”
Wiser words could not be said. – nicholas robinson
