We must show up for black transgender women - told through Elliot Page and Laverne Cox

I, like most people on Twitter that day, was initially confused at the headline popping up on the timeline. “‘Juno’ and ‘Umbrella Academy’ star Elliot Page announces he’s transgender.” Immediately, my mental Rolodex starts flipping - who am I to not be aware of a trans actor?! I love both of those works, who’s in both of -- OH. 

Elliot Page’s coming out is truly something joyful in this, the darkest timeline. Despite the weirdly personal, wildly inappropriate claims that we’re “losing a lesbian,” or actual Governor Mike Huckabee using his official Twitter to complain about how white males get blamed for everything so he doesn’t understand why Page would want to be one, it’s always a great day to see someone stepping closer to affirmation, truth, acceptance, and self-love. It’s hard to find as a trans person, especially in the America we’re currently grappling with. It’s also fantastic news that a trans actor will continue to play the role of a cis woman. The Umbrella Academy’s official Twitter was quick to congratulate Page, affectionately calling him their superhero, and Netflix insiders have confirmed that Page will continue to play his character, Vanya Hargreeves. In a world dominated by cisgender men playing trans women and winning awards for it, it feels like a tiny bit of justice that we, the scary transgenders of the world, get to claim an Academy Award-nominated performance like Juno for us. Keep your Jared Letos and Eddie Redmaynes - we’re not only taking our stories back, we’re stealing some of yours, too. Because here’s the big secret - they were Elliot the whole time. Vanya was always played by someone who’s not a woman. Why should their coming out change anything? It’s just that now, we all get to call them a name and pronoun they like, the barest of minimums we can do (lookin’ at you, Gov Huckster). 

Elliot Page’s coming out made a huge splash and continues to be a popular topic online, with people noticing how Netflix has already changed his name on his films, reposting segments of the lovely letter of support from his wife, and sharing fanart and edits often captioned with “elliot page supremacy.” But, hand in hand with Page’s coming out, another news story got far less attention, and it highlights glaring issues both within our own community as queer people, and with media coverage at large. Laverne Cox is only now getting that groundswell of “I can’t believe no one is talking about this” attention - on November 28th, Cox and a friend were attacked in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park, in an aggressive encounter she detailed on Instagram Live. It’s an incident that is way too familiar to trans women and trans feminine people. I’ve personally been The Friend when my pals are harassed, yelled at, and accosted on transit, in bathrooms, really anywhere in the general public sphere. It’s an epidemic. For a lot of the trans women in my life, they’ve mentioned that it’s not a matter of if they’re attacked, it’s when. Some have talked about truly living life with their head on a swivel, because anything can turn into a life or death scenario, from choosing a bus seat or a stall in the restroom to being asked the time in a park, like in the case of Cox. 

And it’s not new information. The Human Rights Campaign has been tracking data on anti-transgender violence since 2015, and they’ve found that America averages 22 deaths through violence per year. In 2020, that number has doubled with at least 40 reported deaths. They’re almost always young black women, no matter the year. But it’s no wonder people think they can attack a trans woman and get away with it - even an Emmy award winning, breakout darling can’t get our support. No calls for justice, no fan campaigns of love and support, no mainstream coverage highlighting this epidemic of violence pointing to this well-known activist as a resource. Los Angeles actually demonstrated how little trouble you can get in - when influencer Eden the Doll and friends were attacked on video this summer, the men involved were arrested for a short period, but released without charge. Numerous eyewitnesses and cell phone footage are not enough to prosecute a hate crime, apparently - so what should a transphobe be afraid of? 

And none of this is to detract from Elliot. Again, I love him. I’ve loved him for years. I now have a husband who doesn’t know he’s my husband. But do we only have the attention span for one story about trans people at a time? We’re inside throwing a birthday party while our friend who stepped outside to smoke gets kidnapped - someone has to pay attention. We have to pay attention. White, attractive, trans masculine people are, historically, more accepted by society at large. Remember the Ruby Rose fascination of 2015? How Shane McCutcheon was the pinnacle of lesbian sex appeal for the better part of a decade?  I know that it’s way more fun to make fancam edits of Page’s old movies and dunk on transphobes on Twitter, but black trans women are in near constant fear for their lives, and we’re demonstrating to that we won’t show up for them - we’re not showing up now. 

“Well,” you might also be thinking, “I heard about it, maybe it’s just the people you follow.” Then let’s look at it as a pure numbers thing: in terms of engagement, Page’s coming out post on Instagram got over 308 million likes, so you can only imagine the number of times it’s been viewed. Cox’s live stream on the same platform, however, only received a little over 70 thousand likes, and half a million views. The lack of attention and fewer eyes on her story is demonstrable. The biggest news outlet that’s reported on it is CBS News, followed by Yahoo Life - so it’s genuinely possible your grandmother who hasn’t changed her homepage since 2001 heard about it before you. 

Both stories can exist in the public consciousness at the same time. Both should exist at the same time. We can celebrate trans joys while continuing to fight for trans safety and justice. We need both to survive - it’s hard to keep your head up when you never get a win. But it’s a lot easier for me, another conventionally attractive, white trans masculine person, to see the power in the energy around Elliot Page’s story. For the trans women of color around us, though, the silence towards Laverne Cox is much more deafening.