Laverne Cox's #TransIsBeautiful Hashtag Will Give You New Life

The Orange Is The New Black star wants to "celebrate all those things that make trans folks uniquely trans."

Laverne Cox is a bonafide goddess and wonderful human.

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Want proof? Just head to her Tumblr page, where she wrote this amazing entry about Caitlyn Jenner's recent Vanity Fair cover.

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Cox praised Jenner for her bravery but was also critical of news outlets that were all too quick to call out both herself and Jenner for their beauty.

"What I think they meant is that in certain lighting, at certain angles I am able to embody certain cisnormative beauty standards," she wrote.

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"Now, there are many trans folks because of genetics and/or lack of material access who will never be able to embody these standards. More importantly many trans folks don’t want to embody them and we shouldn’t have to to be seen as ourselves and respected as ourselves. It is important to note that these standards are also infomed by race, class and ability among other intersections."

As Cox noted in a recent Bust magazine interview, she's chosen a "high femme" presentation and she's happy with it.

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"There’s something almost binary that suggests either you are moving against cis-normative, heteronormative, imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy, or you are complicit with it. That kind of binary is really, deeply problematic," she said.

"I think it’s more complicated. I’ve gone through all sorts of aesthetic phases. I had a shaved head in college. I wore makeup and I was gender-nonconformist. I also had box braids and a mohawk in college and a little bit after. So I’ve gone through all these different phases aesthetically. I love where I’m at now. I feel like I’ve evolved into being more myself.

But! Not everyone chooses to evoke such traditional beauty standards, which is why Cox launched the #TransIsBeautiful hashtag.

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The aim of the hashtag is to offer "diverse media representations of trans folks to multiply trans narratives in the media and depict our beautiful diversities."

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The #TransIsBeautiful movement is vital, says Cox, because "Most trans folks don’t have the privileges Caitlyn [Jenner] and I have now have."

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"It is those trans folks we must continue to lift up, get them access to healthcare, jobs, housing, safe streets, safe schools and homes for our young people.

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"For me it is necessary everyday to celebrate every aspect of myself," writes Cox, "especially those things about myself that don’t align with other people’s ideas about what is beautiful."

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Right on, Laverne!

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