Laverne Cox truly understands the courage involved in Caitlyn Jenner's very public arrival into the world on Monday, June 1. And while the Orange Is the New Black actress was as stunned by Jenner's amazing Vanity Fair cover as the rest of the world, the fellow transgender celebrity wants everyone to remember it's what's on the inside that's the most beautiful.
Taking to Tumblr to write a long, thoughtful note about Jenner's stunningly beautiful magazine debut, Cox mused over the amazing progress the transgender movement has made in the space of a year.
"On May 29, 2014, the issue of Time Magazine which proclaimed the 'Transgender Tipping Point' was revealed with me on the cover. June 1, 2015 a year and 3 days later, Caitlyn Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover was revealed proclaiming #CallMeCaitlyn I am so moved by all the love and support Caitlyn is receiving," Cox wrote. "It feels like a new day, indeed, when a trans person can present her authentic self to the world for the first time and be celebrated for it so universally."
Cox, 31, agrees that Jenner, 65, looks drop-dead gorgeous in the Annie Leibovitz shots (“Yasss Gawd! Werk Caitlyn! Get it!” she wrote). But what she's most determined to remind supporters of, is the fact that Jenner's beauty is all the more impressive on the inside.
"Yes, Caitlyn looks amazing and is beautiful but what I think is most beautiful about her is her heart and soul," Cox said. "The ways she has allowed the world into her vulnerabilities. The love and devotion she has for her family and that they have for her. Her courage to move past denial into her truth so publicly. These things are beyond beautiful to me," she added.
But while celebrating Caitlyn's arrival into the world, and the outpouring of support from the public, celebrities, and even the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, Cox is keen to remind us that not everybody's transgender journey is such a positive one.
"Most trans folks don’t have the privileges Caitlyn and I have now have," Cox explains. "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. We must lift up the stories of those most at risk, statistically trans people of color who are poor and working class. I have hoped over the past few years that the incredible love I have received from the public can translate to the lives of all trans folks," she added.
