The Emmy award-nominated actor rose to fame with her role in Netflix<\/a>\u2019s comedy-drama Orange is the New Black<\/a>, which became a major hit when it first began airing in 2013. <\/p>\n While Cox was cast in further projects such as Emerald Fennell\u2019s Promising Young Woman and the 2022 Netflix<\/a> series Inventing Anna, she supplemented her income from the limited parts she found as a trans actor with public speaking and brand ambassador roles.<\/p>\n Yet much of that work has since dried up, Cox told The Guardian.<\/a> \u201cThis regime has threatened to defund any colleges and universities that promote gender ideology, DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion],\u201d she said. Even teaching work has fallen through, as \u201ceven though I\u2019d be teaching a graduate acting class, it could be perceived as promoting trans ideology\u201d. <\/p>\n Cox said this was the reality, and while she was not complaining as she was \u201cvery blessed\u201d, she wanted to note that \u201cif Laverne Cox<\/a>\u2019s income has gone down significantly, what about all the other trans people who are not as privileged and blessed as I am?\u201d.<\/p>\n She added: \u201cThere are material consequences for this kind of discrimination and scapegoating.\u201d<\/p>\n Within a few weeks of his second term as president, Donald Trump began a series of executive orders<\/a> targeting transgender and nonbinary people, including removing references to transgender individuals from government websites and attempting to reinstate a ban on their military service.<\/p>\n Last week, his military ban on trans troops faced a significant setback after a federal appeals court ruled that it was illegal.<\/p>\n In the same week, a new poll revealed that public opinion on LGBTQ+ issues appears to be shifting<\/a>, finding that around four in 10 Americans consider changing one\u2019s gender to be morally acceptable \u2013 a decrease from nearly half of the population in 2021.<\/p>\n Speaking to model and trans activist Munroe Bergdorf for Attitude<\/a> magazine last week, Cox reflected on how she was 40 years old when she landed her Orange is the New Black<\/a> role: \u201cI was working really hard to get out of a financial hole. But then I was also working hard to try to lift up my community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Orange came out in 2013, I didn\u2019t know how long that moment would last. I didn\u2019t know how successful it would or wouldn\u2019t be.\u201d<\/p>\n Cox then appeared on a memorable Time magazine cover in 2014, which included the line \u201cThe Transgender Tipping Point\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cI was doing whatever I could to humanise us by telling my story, trying to elevate the stories of other trans people as much as possible,\u201d Cox said. <\/p>\n Cox\u2019s new book, Transcendent: A Memoir, is published by Merky Books in the UK on 25 June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-641046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Laverne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2281543123...jpeg\")
Laverne Cox spoke about the impact the Trump administration had had on her personal income in the past two years (Getty)<\/p>\n![\"Laverne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Laverne-Cox-Time-Front.jpg\")
Laverne Cox on the cover of Time magazine in 2014<\/p>\n