History was made on Thursday morning when the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award nominations were announced: they included one for Laverne Cox as Best Guest Actress. Cox, who plays Sophia Burset on Orange is the New Black, is the first out transgender woman to be nominated for an acting Emmy.
Cox is certainly deserving of the nomination: she brings a depth and humanity to the role that is more than what's in the script. Sophia's interactions with her wife and fight to get the medical care she needed were powerful moments, and it's fantastic to see the Emmys take notice.
Cox's celebrity has been met with some bigoted responses. So, given the occasional fool in the media, like Kevin D Williamson who still thinks that Cox's gender should be up for debate, it's nice to see the Emmys committee underscore that Cox is a woman nominated as an actress, full stop.
It's a big deal that Cox was nominated for playing a trans woman and is a trans woman, but it shouldn't be. Jared Leto, who is a man, won a Golden Globe and an Oscar this year for playing a trans woman in Dallas Buyers Club – leading many of us in the trans community to worry that Hollywood was going to continue to pat cisgender people on the back for their "bravery" for playing trans women. Leto won for playing what many consider to be a tired, dangerous, and dehumanizing stereotype of a trans woman and, as I argued at the time, by being nominated for and accepting these awards, he perpetuated the stereotype that trans women are just men in drag.
And though Hollywood is routinely excoriated in this day and age for dressing up white actors in "yellow face" (let along black face), Dallas Buyers Club director Jean-Marc Vallée, when asked if he ever considered casting a trans woman to play a trans woman, responded, "Never. [Are] there any transgender actors? I'm not aiming for the real thing. I'm aiming for an experienced actor who wants to portray the thing."
There are, of course, many trans actors and actresses – though, like trans people in every profession, they face steep discrimination (including when productions are casting for trans roles). Cox will ideally open doors for more trans people to play trans roles – and hopefully her nomination will lead to the kinds of meaty, humanizing roles that garner other people awards.
None of that is to ignore that there have been far too few women of color recognized at this type of award show, period. Representation on television is starting to change, with more roles (and leading roles) for women of color. Last year, three women of color were nominated for acting Emmys out of 36 nominated women - and that's a step forward. This year five black women were nominated, including Cox's Orange is the New Black costar Uzo Aduba in the same category.
Additionally, as Indiewire points out, in three acting categories 50% or more of the nominations were for actors playing LGBT characters. Slowly, more stories are being told about people of color and LGBT people on TV, and I'm glad the Emmys are taking notice.
But outside of what it means in the industry, her nomination is also a big deal because it will propel Cox into the spotlight even more – and she has consistently used her time in it to advocate for some of the most marginalized members of the transgender community.
Cox has made a point at nearly every turn to refocus people's attention from her to the extreme discrimination and violence leveled at the trans community – and the ways trans women of color are uniquely targeted. When she made history as the first out trans woman on the cover of Time Magazine, the accompanying article focused less on her acting career and more on issues like bullying. When she was named a grand marshal of New York's Pride parade, she chose to ride the parade route with the mother of Islan Nettles, a trans woman of color who was murdered. She is making a documentary about CeCe McDonald, a black trans woman who was sentenced to prison for defending herself against a violent transmisogynist and racist attack.
Trans women of color face the worst of the extreme discrimination and violence leveled at our community and Cox's appearance at the Emmys, holding herself with pride like she always does, will be a moment of humanizing representation for trans women of color.
Cox doesn't just represent our community by being visible and successful, which she certainly could: she makes her celebrity about the serious issues of discrimination, marginalization and violence facing trans people as a whole. She's someone whose star I only want to see rise not just as a fan, but as trans woman deeply committed to the fight for transgender liberation.
Cox's mere presence at the Emmys will still mean a lot – just think about the young, closeted trans girl in a small town who's never seen a positive representation of the kind of woman she could grow up to be. A girl who's only ever heard about trans women through horrible slurs on the playground and dehumanizing stereotypes in the media will see Laverne Cox at the Emmys, glamorous, out and proud – and rubbing shoulders with all the other celebrities on her parents' television.
Cox likes to think of herself as a "possibility model" for young girls, and that's just what she'll be on Emmy's night: a sign to trans girls that they can be themselves, live their lives on their own terms and stand tall as a proud trans women – just like Laverne Cox.