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Laverne Cox discussed why she’s considering leaving the US following Donald Trump’s win in the 2024 election.
In a new interview with Variety, Laverne said that she and several friends were considering a move: “We’re doing research on different cities in Europe and in the Caribbean.”
The actor compared the continued rise of Trump to earlier points in history, continuing, “There was this a thriving community of queer people in Berlin pre the rise of Nazism. They attacked Jewish folks. They attacked immigrants, they attacked queer and trans people.”
When asked how to move “forward” as a Black trans woman, she replied, “I don’t want to be in too much fear, but I’m scared. As a public figure, with all my privilege, I’m scared, and I’m particularly scared because I’m a public figure. I feel like I could be targeted.”
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On election night, the Orange Is the New Black alum further said that she texted with a friend who voted for Trump, recalling, “He’s a cisgender, straight, white male. It’s really interesting and really complicated because this friend of mine said to me that they were sad. As everybody at their job was celebrating Trump winning, he was sad for me. He does care about me and he does love me, and he was sad for me. That was interesting.”
As for Laverne’s advice for other trans people, she recommended preparation: “If you have the capacity right now, trans people to make sure that all your ID documents, in terms of your name and gender markers, match, do it immediately. Do it before January 20th. Get expedited passports with hopefully the proper gender markers while you can. Save as much money as you can. Some people can’t. Being able to flee the country, obviously, is something privileged people can do.”
Lest someone think that Laverne is overreacting, 41 anti-trans bills have already passed in 2024 alone and the number considered is in the hundreds. The Trump campaign reportedly spent over a hundred dollars per actual trans person in the US running anti-trans ads.
Trump’s own website touts the anti-trans rallying cry of “Keep men out of women’s sports” and threatens to cut federal funding for any schools “pushing…radical gender ideology.” He’s also expressed a desire to ban gender-affirming care for minors despite it being lifesaving. Even outside of policy, violence against trans people has risen in recent years, with Black trans women making up a disproportionate amount of those murdered.
This is but an excerpt of the hour-plus conversation with Laverne. You can read more of Laverne’s words here.
🗳 🇺🇲 Make your vote count! Learn more about how to register, important deadlines, and your state’s mail-in voting options here. For more on the 2024 election, check out coverage on BuzzFeed, HuffPost, and NBC News.
