Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Transparent' was my coming-out party.
I had a lot of fights in high school.
I gave up my bread and butter to be an actress.
It was a dream of mine to be in an action film.
It's not fun for an actor to be pigeonholed in any way.
Growing up, I never saw images of trans people succeeding.
Trans women are women, we're just a different type of women.
Going to meetings for Time's Up has been deeply affirming for me.
It's important to be transparent, to remove secrecy from issues of equality.
Sometimes you feel like the only resource you have is your body or your looks.
I always found when I was most focused, that's when I did the best financially.
I used to watch 'Star Trek' on weeknights as a kid while I did my homework for school.
My body has carried me a long way and has had many evolutions. I honor it, flaws and all.
It's tough advocating for trans visibility and not being pigeonholed as just a trans actress.
That is the next step for out trans actors - to just be treated as actors and not 'trans actors.'
I have lived my life putting work first, pushing myself to overcome obstacles to get the job done.
I think that trans women have endured a lot and they compromise a lot when dealing with cis hetero men.
I think that a lot of times people don't understand the bravery that's involved with the Me Too movement.
Transparent' does a good job of pushing the envelope in a real way, not in a sensational or salacious way.
I'm not going to compromise and settle for what I feel is less than I deserve or less than anyone deserves.
Oftentimes, I feel like, because of my cisnormative look or my aesthetics, that sometimes my talent might get overlooked.
Trans folk are so often pushed to the margins and not afforded the resources and opportunities that some nontrans people are.
I recall the magic being on set for season one of 'Transparent.' The trans inclusivity of our set was unparalleled at the time.
Now that I'm out there and it's known that I'm trans, I think that sometimes might hinder my opportunity in snagging a big cis role.
As much of a privilege as it is to pass, it's painful. You have to compartmentalize your life. That's awkward. Dating can be horrible.
I think it's really important to understand that every trans story is not the same, and we are as varied as any other group of people.
It felt like home to be working with so many powerful women - Lizzo, Cardi B, Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu. I felt so welcome and loved.
You wish that everyone knew what cisgender meant. Everyone has access to Google. You can find out what's appropriate to ask a trans person.
My own experience of dating cis-hetero men has really been a challenge, because of the stigma they have to endure for attempting to love us.
Anytime you give a trans person an opportunity, especially an opportunity to be ourselves, you are promoting a shift in the way society sees us.
Drag was not only my introduction to womanhood, but my introduction to entertainment. It was the first time I realized that I could move a crowd.
I'm not getting into rooms for cis roles. I started my career auditioning for those roles, and then I went to play trans roles. And now, I feel boxed in.
Trans women should be accepted and celebrated, whether they look a little bit more on the masculine side of the spectrum or they're the femme of all fems.
Trans talent is not even making it into the audition room, and we're not even being afforded the opportunity to tell our own stories. I feel that is problematic.
In my own personal life, it's been pretty hard navigating love, and so I've found this kind of contentment in loving myself and waiting for the world to catch up.
I don't have shame around where I've been or what I've done to survive to get to where I'm at in my life. When you don't have shame around something, it can't hurt you.
Trans women, and women in general, have so many constraints placed on our bodies. As women, we are told not to show our bodies, and as trans people, we've been told not to exist.
I lived what we call 'stealth' for a number of years. Even when I started acting in the industry, I didn't disclose. I didn't come out. My first job on 'Law & Order' was not a trans role.
I think I had something to prove to myself, that I could book a cis role and then if I did come out one day and start auditioning for trans roles, I could say, 'Look, I've already worked in a cis role.'
How often do we get to see trans people interacting with each other onscreen? We have friends. Hello? We're people. We're not just this isolated unit all the time. I would like to see us carry a project.
Everyone has a voice. I mean, that's the good side to the Internet Age and social media. Obviously, there's negatives to it, but I think that the fact that everyone has a voice now is a tool that we can use for good.
Trans women are conditioned to accept that society sees us as overly sexualized objects - even more so than how society already sexualizes cis women. It's almost as if they don't see us as fully developed human beings.
I feel like if Hollywood can stretch for inclusion and intersectionality, and being intentional with its intersectionality, that that can ripple out past Hollywood into whatever industry and kind of affect society as a whole.
I got to choreograph a halftime dance with the cheerleading squad, which was all-female, at my high school. And I was the only boy, at the time. We did this whole routine to 'Maria Maria' by Santana, and 'Thong Song' by Sisqo - it was a mix.
We have to be intentional with including trans women, all women, all marginalized people. Whether we say 'Me Too' or call ourselves feminists or strive to create a diverse workplace that reflects the world we live in, it's all about being intentional.
A lot of my chosen family is black and I say that unabashedly. For anyone who doesn't understand that, they just don't understand me and my generation because especially in the LGBT community, the concept of chosen family is so important and it's a survival tactic.
When we get to a point when trans folks are included in the creative process, the narrative will be much more authentic. Trans actors playing trans roles is a key part of that. But some of the trans talent is not even making it into the audition room, let's be honest.
How will I become Meryl Streep if I can't even get in the door with Jennifer Lawrence for the same role? I think that it starts with casting directors and executives and studio heads opening up their minds, and really putting an effort into being trans inclusive in their projects, whether they're trans-specific or not.