Laverne Cox Writes 'Transcendent' After More Than 10 Years in the Spotlight

Q: What secrets did Laverne Cox unearth that even her closest friends never knew?

In *Transcendent*, Laverne Cox says the writing process uncovered traumas and private truths that even close friends did not know, most notably childhood sexual abuse, a suicide attempt at 11, and the depth of abandonment and shame she carried from childhood. She reveals that she was molested by a babysitter and later repeatedly assaulted by two teenage boys at her church, experiences she says she had never spoken about before. She also discloses that, at 11, she attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of her mother’s pills and told no one after waking up sick the next day. Cox also writes about being left with her twin brother after a family incident and ending up in an orphanage for a month, an experience that left her feeling discarded and haunted for years. Beyond those events, she says the memoir exposed emotional truths she had buried, including how deeply she felt unwanted, unlovable, and unable to tell her mother she was a girl because she believed she would not be believed. She has described the book as an “excavation” and an “exorcism,” saying it brought to the surface pain she had long kept hidden, including some details her closest friends had never heard.

Q: Haunted by her past, does her memoir reveal forgiveness or a final family reckoning?

Laverne Cox’s memoir lands closer to hard-won compassion than a neat act of forgiveness, while also serving as a clear reckoning with her family history. In *Transcendent*, Cox revisits childhood trauma she says haunted her for years: bullying, sexual abuse, abandonment, and a mother whose love often felt conditional. She writes of anger that remains real—especially toward the boys who abused her and toward her mother for failing to protect her. That makes the book less a story of full absolution than an honest account of unresolved hurt. At the same time, Cox describes therapy as helping her move out of “survival mode” and toward “deep compassion” for her mother. She frames her mother’s behavior within intergenerational trauma and says she is now responsible for her own healing. That suggests a mature, partial forgiveness rooted in understanding, not denial. The memoir also delivers a family reckoning. Cox challenges her mother’s version of key events, including the orphanage episode that marked her deeply. Her twin brother, M Lamar, acts as a witness to that past and, in adulthood, cut off contact with their mother after she would not consistently use Cox’s correct name and pronouns. That estrangement underscores the lasting consequences of the family conflict. So the memoir offers both: not a tidy reconciliation, but a candid reckoning with the damage, alongside compassion that stops short of erasing the pain.

3 articles · Updated · NPR · Jun 22

Laverne Cox said she wrote the memoir "Transcendent" to share a story she hopes will help others, framing it as one more human account that can make a difference.
More than 10 years after becoming one of America's most visible trans women, the "Orange Is the New Black" actor says the book also reflects a childhood spent largely hiding herself.
That contrast between public visibility and private concealment anchors the memoir's personal focus, extending Cox's public role into a fuller account of her life.