Laverne Cox finally has a Barbie doll designed after her.
The Emmy award-winning transgender actress and advocate appeared on the Today Show on Wednesday to announce that Mattel will be selling the Laverne-inspired Barbie dolls, and to share what the doll will look like to viewers.
The doll includes a mix-and-match-style outfit designed by Carlyle Nuera, and is part of Mattel’s Barbie Tribute Collection, which honors and celebrates visionary women whose contributions have helped shape and impact culture.
On Mattel’s website, the company explains why Cox was a perfect icon to be honored with a Tribute doll.
“As a four-time Emmy-nominated actress, Emmy-winning producer, and the first transgender woman of color to have a leading role on a scripted TV show,” the description reads. “Laverne Cox uses her voice to amplify the message of moving beyond societal expectations to live more authentically.”
Cox is one of 16 figures to be honored with a Tribute doll.
Cox first rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, becoming the first transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category for her work on the show.
In 2015, she won a Daytime Emmy Award in Outstanding Special Class Special as the executive producer of Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word. She has most recently guest-starred in several TV shows, and plays the role of Kacy Duke in the American drama miniseries Inventing Anna.
She has been able to use her celebrity and the platform she has as a prominent actress to bring the issue of transgender rights to the forefront of the national conversation.
During her appearance on the Today Show, Cox also spoke out against the wave of anti-trans legislation that has been passed in various state legislatures in recent years, ranging from bans on transgender athletes to restroom bans to the criminalization of gender-affirming medical care for minors to laws barring classroom discussions of LGBTQ issues.
Within the past year alone, the number of anti-trans bills being introduced — usually by Republican lawmakers — has skyrocketed, jumping from 41 in 2021 to nearly 240 in 2022.
“I hope all the kids who are feeling stigmatized when their health care is being jeopardized, whose ability to play sports [is curtailed], I hope they can see this Barbie and feel a sense of hope and possibility,” Cox said.
Since the doll’s release on Wednesday, it has consistently taken up the top slots on Amazon’s Top Toy sellers list. The dolls currently sells for $40 and can be found on Mattel’s website.
A proposed bill in Kentucky would remove transgender children from their parents' custody if they are caught using bathrooms at school that don't match their assigned sex at birth.
Sponsored by State Rep. Jason Petrie (R-Elkton), the measure does not explicitly mention transgender children or bathrooms. It does, however, refer to various provisions governing student conduct.
These include a "bathroom ban" that was passed last year as part of a sweeping anti-transgender bill that also banned access to gender-affirming care for minors, use of gender-affirming pronouns in school environments, and "Don't Say Gay"-style prohibitions on classroom content.
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, one of three candidates seeking the Republican nomination for governor this year, said that transgender people who refuse to use the bathroom matching their assigned sex at birth should be forced to urinate or defecate on public street corners.
Robinson, known for his anti-gay diatribes and outspoken opposition to LGBTQ visibility and civil rights, made the comments during a recent speech at a campaign event in Cary, North Carolina.
Like many other Republican candidates for office, Robinson has focused intently on culture-war issues, including transgender rights, to rally social conservatives around his campaign.
President Joe Biden offered words of support during his State of the Union address on Thursday, March 7, telling transgender Americans -- many of whom feel increasingly under attack by efforts to restrict visible expressions of identity or gender-nonconformity -- "I have your back."
In a speech characterized by many pundits as "fiery," "energetic," "impassioned," and combative, Biden verbally parried with some Republican members of Congress who sought to heckle or "troll" him, especially on the issue of immigration and border security, as reported by CNN.
The president also denounced book-banning -- which conservatives have espoused, ostensibly in order to protect children from sexually-tinged or LGBTQ content -- as attempts to erase history.
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