Laverne Cox: I've lost 90 percent of my income since Trump crushed DEI

This story originally appeared on Out.

The White House's ongoing efforts to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion from the federal government, educational institutions, and private businesses have directly impacted the income of one of the most famous and iconic transgender women in the world: Laverne Cox. She said so in interviews promoting her just-released memoir, Transcendent.

“I’ve lost so much money because of this administration, the past year,” Cox told Attitude. “I managed to stay busy with acting and branding work, as well as speaking engagements. But I never thought college speaking gigs would dry up."

In a conversation with the Guardian, Cox explained that over the past two years, she has lost 90 percent of her income: Hosting contracts have not only ended but also not been renewed. As "rainbow capitalism" has evaporated, so have corporate speaking engagements. And Cox explained her surprise that even academia has turned away from booking her for lucrative speaking engagements.

“This regime has threatened to defund any colleges and universities that promote gender ideology, DEI,” she said. Even teaching work has fallen through, as “even though I’d be teaching a graduate acting class, it could be perceived as promoting trans ideology”.

And as Cox tells it, this isn't merely impacting her own bottom line.

'Material consequences'

"These are the realities. I’m not complaining – I’m very blessed. I think the important thing to note is that if Laverne Cox’s income has gone down significantly, what about all the other trans people who are not as privileged and as blessed as I am?" Cox told the Guardian. "There are material consequences for this kind of discrimination and scapegoating.”

“I’ve been scared. The past three years, I’ve been terrified," she told Attitude. “And as I lost opportunities, I felt like I should say less because I didn’t want to lose more. And I didn’t want to damage the community either.

In the cover story interview with the U.K.-based LGBTQ+ brand, Cox told Attitude she considered whether it was time to speak louder or to go silent.

“Even leading up to the 2024 election, I was like, ‘Should I not be so vocal?’ But what I’ve come to realize for me, just in terms of my own mental and spiritual health is that when I have the audacity to speak the truth the way I have now, I feel like myself. I feel empowered.”

Another 'tipping point'

In the dozen years since Time declared 2014 was "The Transgender Tipping Point," writers at Out have repeatedly called on Hollywood to reset, as Tre'vell Anderson did six years ago. Cox herself reflected on that spotlight in a post on Instagram in 2021, and again in her memoir.

In her interview with Attitude, Cox said she can now point to the modern moment when it was clear to her that trans people were losing the culture war.

“I knew we lost the culture after the Dylan Mulvaney/Bud Light moment, then Target was targeted because they had Pride merch,” said the Emmy-winning star of Orange Is the New Black, Clean Slate, and Promising Young Woman. “Then half the country banned gender-affirming care for young people, and trans girls from sports. I was like, ‘We are so fucked.’ And it’s gotten progressively worse. It’s never been about protecting women and girls, right?”

Cox, who is now filming a comedy about the culture wars called Soapbox, spoke about how she believes the conservative effort titled Project 2025 was the blueprint for what is now happening in the U.S.

“All these words had to be taken out of every piece of legislation, policy, government document: gender, gender ideology, gender identity, LGBTQ, DEI, abortion, contraception," she said. “Here in America, we have a whole treasure trove of files on Epstein and survivors demanding justice, and they don’t even want to investigate. It’s never been about protecting children because they would do something about guns. It’s always been about scapegoating trans people and eradicating us from public life.”