Michaela Jaé Rodriguez Revolutionized Trans Visibility in Hollywood. Now She Wants to Kick Ass in an Action Movie
now-viral photo featuring more than 50 prominent Black stars, including Tracee Ellis Ross, Michael B. Jordan, Laverne Cox and fellow Newark, New Jersey native Queen Latifah. “She’s somebody who lifted me up when I never thought anyone would,” Rodriguez says with pride. “She’s instilled a lot of hope, not just in me as a trans woman, but in a lot of women in our family.
It is such an honor to see her in that photo.” What has it meant to have so many high-profile parents of trans children — everyone from Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union-Wade to Jamie Lee Curtis — use their platforms to speak out in support of the LGBTQ community? It feels so good to see these high-profile individuals speaking on political injustices that are happening around the world.
I saw Dwyane and Gabrielle recently and had to let them know personally, “Thank you.” Because there’s a stigma within the African American community.
And it’s so beautiful to see a Black family like theirs speak about their child, Zaya, with love, and for them to say, “I’m here for my child, and anything that tries to come against her, it shall not prosper.
