“The issue over the years for me as a trans woman and other trans women is that the womanhood of trans women is often disavowed,” she said. “That a lot of people don’t see trans women as women, so the men who are attracted to women—people think they’re gay.”
As Cox explained, that can cause men to want to keep the relationship a secret. “If you’re a straight man, you don’t want people to think you’re gay,” she shared. “A lot of times they don’t want to disclose or want to let anyone know.”
As a result, little progress is made. “People don’t get it. People just don’t understand it and it’s really sad and I wish we were in a different place, but we’re just not there yet,” Cox said before issuing a call. “We need a guy who is probably famous and articulate to be able to talk about this, to be able to come out and maybe publicly talk about it.”
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)