Transgender actor and activist Laverne Cox believes the rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives under President Donald Trump has significantly affected their income, particularly by reducing opportunities to speak on college campuses.
In recent interviews, Cox said the changing political and cultural climate has led to the cancellation or disappearance of speaking engagements that once provided a steady source of revenue while allowing them to advocate on behalf of transgender individuals.
“I’ve lost so much money because of this administration, the past year,” Cox told Attitude magazine.
The 54-year-old actor, best known for the role in Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black, said they have continued to find work.
“I managed to stay busy with acting and branding work, as well as speaking engagements. But I never thought college speaking gigs would dry up,” Cox said.
According to Cox, those appearances were both financially important and personally meaningful. The actor explained that speaking engagements helped address student loan debt while also providing a platform to discuss transgender issues and share personal experiences.
“I was working really hard to get out of a financial hole,” Cox said. “But then I was also working hard to try to lift up my community.”
Cox argued that personal interaction and storytelling remain important tools for changing public perceptions of transgender people.
The comments come as the Trump administration has pursued an aggressive campaign against DEI programs across federal agencies, educational institutions and corporations. Administration officials have argued that such programs promote ideological agendas and unfairly prioritize certain groups based on immutable characteristics.
In response, many colleges, universities and private companies have scaled back or eliminated DEI offices, training programs and diversity-focused initiatives.
“This administration is very punitive with anything that suggests DEI or gender ideology, and corporations have been very scared,” Cox said.
Some argue that Cox’s comments overlook what the White House is actually targeting. The administration has not banned companies, universities, or event organizers from hiring transgender individuals or inviting transgender speakers. Instead, it has focused on rolling back programs that explicitly prioritize certain demographic groups in hiring, admissions, contracting, and other professional endeavors. Supporters of the changes contend that opportunities should be awarded based on merit rather than identity categories.
Others see Cox’s complaint as an inadvertent indictment of the DEI era itself. If opportunities disappear when institutions stop prioritizing demographic diversity for its own sake in their programming decisions, critics argue, it suggests those opportunities may have been sustained by identity-based qualifiers rather than by market demand, audience interest, or professional merit.
The actor said the decline in opportunities has forced them to rely on personal savings and retirement funds to offset lost income.
“The past year or two, I’ve had to dip into savings and my retirement fund. So, the blessing is that I finally have the privilege to have a retirement fund to dip into, but you don’t really want to do that.”
In a separate interview with Gay Times, Cox urged supporters of transgender rights to remain politically engaged, warning that legal protections can change depending on the political climate.
“It’s important for every person to turn out and vote and let our voices be heard. It’s a call and reminder that, just because we have rights now, it doesn’t mean those rights won’t be rolled back.”
Cox also discussed broader concerns facing transgender Americans, including economic hardship and violence. The actor argued that some transgender individuals are pushed into sex work because of employment barriers and discrimination.
They further maintained that cultural attitudes toward transgender identity remain a significant challenge, and argued that greater acceptance and understanding are necessary to reduce discrimination and violence.
“At the end of the day, we haven’t had enough of a cultural shift where we can believe and understand that trans women are women,” Cox said. “That is at the heart of why we’re being murdered.”
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