Laverne Cox revealed she dated a MAGA cop, and it's safe to say it hasn't gone down super well.
The actor has previously been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, and said that she considered leaving the country after his reelection. She even gave the keynote speech at the LA “Trans Liberation Now!” rally, saying, "The real enemy is not actually trans people. The real enemy’s not migrants, or poor people, or homeless people, or any other scapegoat that they claim. The enemy clearly is the plutocrats, the oligarchs, the billionaires and corporations who create these issues to divide working-class people.”
However, she recently took to Instagram to promote her upcoming NYC show Laverne Cox: Gurrl How Did I Get Here? It's advertised as "an unforgettable journey through the twists and turns of her life and groundbreaking career with humor, heart, and a few fabulous wardrobe changes."
In the reel, she began, "My ex-boyfriend, when we met five years ago, at the height of the pandemic, he was 26. I was 48."
"He is a blonde hair, blue-eyed MAGA Republican voter who is a New York City police officer. We were madly in love. I did not develop any of these politics. I still have my own," she continued, before calling him "hot" and teasing that fans could "hear more about that" at her show.
Well, many of the comments weren't exactly thrilled by this confession:
So much so that Laverne quickly took to Instagram again to address criticism mid-rehearsal. She said, "People are gagging in the comments. I didn't really think about what the reaction would be. I was telling the truth about it, teasing the show."
"It is a big part of the show that I'm doing at City Winery a week from today, that relationship, what the relationship was like, how we attempted to navigate our differences politically. But for the record, when we matched on Tinder, I didn't know what he did for a living. I didn't know his politics. We were just chatting. He actually told me he did something else," she added.
Responding to one particular comment that read, "Just tell us the D was good, that’s more believable," Laverne said, "That was lovely, too. But I'm a grown woman and I've lived. I am not gonna date someone for four years because of the D or because of something superficial about how he looks. He has a beautiful soul and really beautiful qualities. And I was in love."
Calling out people online who are "dehumanizing people who have different political beliefs," she continued, "Fascism is not consistent with my values. I am an anti-fascist. I never adopted any of my ex's politics. I always challenged him with love and empathy and tried to listen to his perspectives. Often corrected him with facts...the good things about the relationship were so good that I was willing to work with the politics that I didn't agree with."
"For the folks who say it's a betrayal to my community because I fell in love with someone with different politics, I mean, I get it. I get it, especially now, and we aren't dating now, and I think with this current administration, lines certainly have to be drawn, because we're fighting for our lives in a different way than we were five years ago," she continued, though it's worth noting that it was still the Trump administration during the height of the pandemic.
Laverne further clarified that she was an independent for most of her life, but registered as a Democrat in 2020 so that she could vote for Bernie Sanders. She further emphasized that she'd never voted for Trump herself: "I don't think my ex-boyfriend dehumanized me, though. Yes, the MAGA movement is deeply anti-trans. It deeply dehumanizes trans people. I'm not confused by that. I am not delusional. Yes, my ex-boyfriend was MAGA, voted for Trump, but that is not the sum total of who he is as a human being."
"We really didn't talk trans stuff. And literally, last year, as the election was approaching, I was like, '[Trump's] going to take away gender affirming care for children and adults,'" Laverne continued. "He was shocked. He had no idea. He was like, 'I hope it doesn't happen.' I was like, 'Sweetie, it's going to happen.' He hadn't read Project 2025. He was a very low-information voter. For most of the relationship, I didn't talk trans anything. He had never dated a trans woman before me, and I didn't want to bring trans stuff home. I wanted to just have fun, there's enough trans political stuff in my life."
