When you train as a dancer, you understand you have to work exceptionally hard. I think dancers are the hardest - working people in show business. You have to push your body beyond where you thought it could go. It's athleticism. Perfection doesn't exist, but with classical ballet, there is an ideal, and I got obsessed with that ideal. In some ways, it was problematic because I don't have an ideal ballet body, but the discipline is what I carry with me to this day. That's my park, the discipline of dancing.

Laverne Cox

It is revolutionary for any trans person to choose to be seen and visible in a world that tells us we should not exist.

Laverne Cox

revolutionary should world

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.

Laverne Cox

okay knows people

Each and every one of us has the capacity to be an oppressor. I want to encourage each and everyone of us to interrogate how we might be an oppressor and how we might be able to become liberators for ourselves and for each other.

Laverne Cox

able want might

If you have a problem with people living their lives and being authentically who they are, you really should go and do some soul-searching.

Laverne Cox

problem soul people

I think transwomen, and transpeople in general, show everyone that you can define what it means to be a man or woman on your own terms. A lot of what feminism is about is moving outside of roles and moving outside of expectations of who and what you're supposed to be to live a more authentic life.

Laverne Cox

men mean moving

We are born as who we are, the gender thing is something that is imposed on you.

Laverne Cox

gender who-we-are born

By doing the work to love ourselves more, I believe we will love each other better.

Laverne Cox

love-each-other i-believe believe

My third grade teacher called my mother and said, 'Ms. Cox, your son is going to end up in New Orleans in a dress if we don't get him into therapy.' And wouldn't you know, just last week I spoke at Tulane University, and I wore a lovely green and black dress.

Laverne Cox

mother teacher son

If someone needs to express their gender in a way that is different, that is okay, and they should not be denied healthcare. They should not be bullied. They don’t deserve to be victims of violence. … That’s what people need to understand, that it’s okay and that if you are uncomfortable with it, then you need to look at yourself.

Laverne Cox

equality inspiring people

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.

Laverne Cox

get-better lessons jobs

Just me existing, as an openly black transgender woman from a working-class background, thriving, is a political act. My brother always reminds me that if you are black in America and you're alive, you deserve a round of applause. There are so many forces that don't want us to be alive, and so just being openly who I am, and happy and thriving, is a political act.

Laverne Cox

black political brother

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.

Laverne Cox

safety black men

Who you are authentically is alright.

Laverne Cox

alright who-you-are

I believe that when we love someone, we respect them, and we listen to them; we feel that their voice matters. And- we let them dictate the terms of who they are and what their story is.

Laverne Cox

voice stories believe

Whether you're transgender or not, most of us get to a point in our lives where we can no longer lie to ourselves.

Laverne Cox

transgender our-lives lying

When a trans woman gets called a man, that is an act of violence.

Laverne Cox

acts-of-violence violence men

Believing that you are unworthy of love and belonging or that who you are authentically is a sin or is wrong, is deadly.

Laverne Cox

belonging sin believe

I was assigned male at birth, is the way I like to put it, because I think... we're born who we are... and the gender thing is something someone imposes on you. And so, I was assigned male at birth, but I always felt like I was a girl.

Laverne Cox

males girl thinking

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.

Laverne Cox

honestly want people

Healthcare for trans women is a necessity. It is not elective. It is not cosmetic. It is life saving.

Laverne Cox

cosmetics healthcare saving