When people find out you're an actress, they Google you.
What took time for my mom was getting the pronouns right and calling me by a different name. Laverne was my middle name before I transitioned.
My mother was a teacher. She was grooming my brother and me to be successful, accomplished people.
I was really creative. I started to dance very young. I loved to dance. I begged my mother to put me into dance classes, and finally, in third grade, she did. Tap and jazz, but not ballet.
I just have to be myself. I'm not perfect, and I'm going to make mistakes; I might say the wrong thing. I have to be responsible to my community, and I feel like I am, but then I have to not be so hard on myself.
I was an actress long before I was a reality TV person.
I don't have children, and I don't want children.
I wanted to be famous; I wanted to perform. Those things I really, really wanted more than anything else.
I never knew my father. He was never married to my mother; he was never a part of my life. It was just my mom, my brother and me.
Everyone is insecure. I think, really, it comes from, like, a desire to want to be in control of how you're represented.
Writing a book is quite an undertaking and I wouldn't want to do it just to do it.
Whether you're transgender or not, most of us get to a point in our lives where we can no longer lie to ourselves.
We shouldn't demonize the woman who wears high heels and we shouldn't demonize the woman who doesn't wear high heels. We should accept all forms of comportment.
We are not what other people say we are. We are who we know ourselves to be, and we are what we love. That's okay.
There's not just one trans story. There's not just one trans experience.
The preoccupation with transition and with surgery objectifies trans people, and we don't get to really deal with the real lived experiences.
I'm terrified of saying the wrong thing on stage with bell hooks.
I'm so grateful that I had the luxury of transitioning in private. Because when you transition in the public eye, the transition becomes the story.
I'm always skeptical about representations of trans people, especially when trans people are not making the work.
I'm a Self-made Woman in Every Sense of the Word
I honestly just want to make myself happy most, and if other people like it, then that's great. If they don't, then I'm still happy.
Beyoncé means so much to me. Throughout my transition, Beyoncé has been there as a style icon, an example of excellence, of beauty, of vulnerability. She's shared so much of herself, and it's inspiring.
You need names to get the movie made.
Who you are authentically is alright.
When people have points of reference that are humanizing, that demystifies difference.
When I was perceived as a black man I became a threat to public safety. When I was dressed as myself, it was my safety that was threatened.
When a trans woman gets called a man, that is an act of violence.
We are born as who we are, the gender thing is something that is imposed on you.
There are lessons in everything. The bad, the good. Our job is to listen, and to continue to learn, so that maybe we get better at this. Maybe get better at life.
Seeing a black transgender woman embracing and loving everything about herself might be inspiring to some other folks.
