“Orange Is The New Black” was my introduction to Laverne Cox. Sure, I love a good sleepover plot line, but not when it’s in a women’s prison, after a few seasons I lost interest. However, my interest in Laverne grew as I saw her doing press and speaking out about trans rights. The trans community (and our whole Rainbow Family) couldn’t ask for a better spokesmodel. Laverne is iconic, being the first trans woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy and the first to win a Daytime Emmy as a producer.
Last year I was lucky enough to go to her one woman show (“Gurrl How Did I Get Here?”) at The City Winery in New York City and last week her autobiography (“Transcendent”) book release at The Strand Bookstore where she was in discussion with Dylan Mulvaney. Laverne was her usual smart and funny self, sharing stories of her life and how the book came into being. It took years of turning down other publishers who were looking for dirt on her surgical transition more than her emotional one.
So you’re not going to learn if Laverne has a penis (which oddly, people focus on), but she’s got the balls to share intimate struggles and stories about becoming the woman she is today. The majority of the book focuses on Laverne’s youth growing up surrounded by abuse and bullying, things Rainbow folks can relate to. Only a quarter of the book covers her career. In my gay opinion, the most shocking part of the book, is her willingness to talk about her financial status and salary for “Orange Is The New Black” and how poorly she was treated by the show. However, being the class act, she still has an appreciation for those who gave her career a start.
“Transcendent” is a trip down memory lane, both in good times, with all of Laverne’s 80’s pop references and bad, before anti-bullying laws and trans terminology existed. It’s like having a kiki where Laverne lays out all her emotional baggage, laughs about her “Salvation Armani” fashion fails and dishes about all her exes whom she protects with cute nicknames. It’s definitely a journey where you learn more about Laverne and the struggles trans folks had to endure and unfortunately continue to.
