A Trans Woman Plays… a Trans Woman! (gasp!)

No, really: at long last, trans woman Laverne “I’ve literally played a prostitute about seven times” Cox is playing a trans women on the new Orange is the New Black.

Cox, who shares an acting coach with Nicole Kidman, plays Sophia, a trans woman who, pre-transition, was a firefighter. In the third episode, guest-directed by Jodie Foster, we learn about her complicated relationship with her wife and son. “I don’t know of a trans character on television played by a trans person that has as much humanity as this character,” Cox says. It’s true. Generally, trans folks are portrayed as tragic or heroic, but Sophia is multidimensional and complex, part hard-won confidence, part sweet underbelly.

It doesn’t sound anything like my kind of show, to be honest, but I will try to tune in because Laverne Cox is amazingly cool.