Thread by @CyrusToulabi

🏳️‍🌈TODAY’S PRIDE HERO🏳️‍🌈
Laverne Cox (age unknown)

The first openly transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy for acting, and the first openly transgender woman of color to star in a scripted TV series.

Known for her role on Orange is the New Black.

#LGBTVoices

Born in Mobile, Alabama. She and her twin brother were raised by their single mother, Gloria, who was a teacher.

While she was born biologically male, she always felt female.

Laverne was bullied and attempted suicide at age 11. But she found strength in her love for the arts.

Laverne attended high school at the Alabama School of Fine Arts before going to Indiana University and Marymount Manhattan College, where her twin brother also went and studied the visual arts.

Laverne studied acting in addition to graduating with a BFA in dance.

During her college years, she went from being gender nonconforming to presenting more female.

She began her medical transition and living and identifying as female. As she transitioned, she performed in drag shows in the nightclub scene, as an outlet for her desire to perform.

In 2008, she appeared on Law & Order: SVU. Shortly after, she became a contestant on the reality series "I Want to Work for Diddy."

She continued to get roles on TV and in indie films, as well the reality series, "TRANSform Me" in 2010, before landing her breakthrough role...

Laverne rose to fame her big breakthrough role on the hit Netflix series "Orange is the New Black."

Cox plays an imprisoned trans woman who fights for appropriate hormone treatments. She has a strained relationship with her son, while receiving love and acceptance from her wife.

Laverne's identical twin brother, M Lamar, also appears on "Orange is the New Black," powerfully portraying Sophia pre-transitioning, as Marcus.

During her first season on Orange Is the New Black, Cox was still appearing at a restaurant on the Lower East Side as a drag queen.

While continuing to star in #OITNB, Laverne appeared in projects like The Mindy Project, CBS's "Doubt," the comedic film "Grandma" from the Tribeca Film Festival, and a reboot of cult favorite "The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again," as Dr. Frank-N-Furter.

Cox is a trailblazer, becoming the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy for acting.

She was an executive producer on the documentaries "Free CeCe," about an imprisoned trans woman, and the "The T Word," about trans youth, for which she won an Emmy Award.

Cox is an #LGBTQ activist and #trans advocate, raising awareness about the transgender community, on and off screen.

Her impact and prominence has led to a growing conversation about trans people, specifically transgender women, and how being transgender intersects with race.

Members of #LGBTVoices are tweeting about a different Pride Hero every day throughout the month of June.

We hope you enjoy reading about these resisters, and the forms of #resistance they used that we echo today.

We hope you RT us and show your support!

twitter.com/i/moments/1002…

#RELATED: In addition to the collaborative #LGBTVoices project...

I also have a personal parallel #PRIDEMONTH SPOTLIGHT thread!

Check it out for more proud #resisters:

https://twitter.com/CyrusToulabi/status/1002744047461634048