Tradition is nothing but ancestral peer pressure.
Both 'Saturday Church' and 'Pose' are incredible because they demonstrate something essential about survival. When you get pushed hard enough by certain circumstances, your survival mechanism kicks in, and you grow into the things that you need or are missing in your life.
My love is political. My body is political. I talk even when I don't speak.
Historically, our culture has not made room for the nuances of humanity. People have not been kept safe: women, people of colour, queer people, transgender people.
We're standing on the shoulders of so many people who have already broken down so many barriers.
We deserve the same things that cis women do, the same things that other humans do, from our social lives to our families to love.
I didn't want anyone to have control over how people saw me. I wanted to have that power myself.
Even before 'Pose,' I was involved in activism and advocating for my community in various ways. I didn't see that stopping with my entry into this industry, but people are going to be afraid of what you're going to say. I'm going to bump heads with people that benefit from the oppression that they put trans people through.
Religion has played a big part in eliminating the nuance in humanity. People began to believe things before they knew them. It stopped people from listening and learning with the patience and love of the God they believe in.
I knew I had a chance to teach the world something that would help more people be safe.
Our government is not protecting us. They are exploiting us.
A lot of people are afraid to use their platforms because they don't want to lose anything they have - and that's OK. We don't all have to be activists, but I choose to do it because, really, what's the worst that could happen?
Laverne Cox, Isis King, Janet Mock, Our Lady J, Ryan Murphy, Steven Canals, the people I've met growing up, and even me - all have inspired me to see that it is possible to get far anywhere and that the capacity for positive and motivating influence is truly unlimited.
I want more people to hear me and be part of the change that everyone would benefit from: the change we need so that people like me can be safe and happy.
Everyone that's ever seen 'Pose' who isn't trans or doesn't have any connection to the LGBTQ community has been given the opportunity to create empathetic relationships to the characters that they would not have otherwise been able to. That's super essential in helping counter homophobia and transphobia.
I'm non-binary, but I don't really talk about it that much.
I think of makeup as more like a design, decoration, or jewelry. I mean, it's literally paint; it's art. I don't prefer to use it as concealing anything because it influences the illusion of standardized perfection.
I want to see designers capitalize on a beauty that is not only white. I need them to stop acting like beautiful black and brown women do not exist.
I don't know how to have fun.
We rarely see cisgender heterosexual men in positions where they're nurturers. We only paint femmes, trans women, and cis women as nurturers, and because of toxic masculinity, men are taught not to be that way.
