Laverne Cox is putting a dollar amount on a culture war that many institutions have been treating like a quiet paperwork issue.
In a new interview with The Guardian, the Emmy-nominated actress said she has lost “90 percent” of her income as speaking engagements, hosting work, and teaching opportunities dried up during the broader backlash against “gender ideology” and DEI. Cox said the hit came as the Trump administration moved aggressively to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across federal agencies, contractors, and schools receiving federal funds.
That makes her comments bigger than one celebrity’s booking calendar. On January 20, 2025, Trump signed an executive order ending federal DEI programs, arguing the Biden administration had pushed “diversity, equity, and inclusion” into government operations. One day later, another order revoked Executive Order 11246, the long-standing affirmative action framework for federal contractors, and directed the Labor Department’s contractor compliance office to stop promoting “diversity” and affirmative action requirements.
For Cox, those policy shifts quickly became personal.
“Even though I’d be teaching a graduate acting class, it could be perceived as promoting trans ideology,” she said, adding that the backlash has “material consequences for this kind of scapegoating.” Still, Cox made clear that she knows her platform gives her protection many others do not, saying she feels “very blessed.”
And she is not alone in sounding the alarm. The U.S. Department of Education warned federally funded schools in 2025 that they must stop using race preferences and stereotypes in areas including admissions, hiring, promotion, scholarships, discipline, and other programs. Meanwhile, Reuters reported this month that 19 states and Washington, D.C., sued the administration over anti-DEI contract terms that could affect up to 640,000 contracts and subcontracts across more than 34,000 contractors.
Cox also tied the moment to Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-backed policy blueprint that laid out hundreds of recommendations for a conservative administration. Reflecting on the plan, she told The Guardian, “All these words had to be taken out of every piece of legislation—gender, LGBTQ, DEI, even contraception.”
The timing has placed Cox back in the headlines beyond policy. During a recent appearance on “The View,” Alyssa Farah Griffin pressed her about a past relationship with a “blonde-haired, blue-eyed, MAGA Republican” NYPD officer. Cox said, “We didn’t plan to fall in love, but we did,” before admitting that “people show you who they are” and that staying eventually “betrayed” her values.
Still, the sharper story is not who Cox dated. It is who gets paid, booked, hired, invited, protected, or quietly pushed out when institutions decide DEI is too politically expensive.
