Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Laverne Cox Says DEI Rollbacks Cost Her About 90% of Non‑Acting Income

Cox attributes the drop to Trump administration signals, including Project 2025 proposals, and says the pullback in corporate and academic DEI work will widen material harm for less-privileged trans people.

Overview

  • Cox told The Guardian during a media tour that roughly 90 percent of her speaking, teaching and corporate-pay work has disappeared, a claim repeated in interviews on June 16, 2026.
  • She links the loss to Trump administration actions and Project 2025 policy drafts that seek to remove terms like 'gender,' 'LGBTQ' and 'DEI' from government documents and to pressure schools over diversity programs.
  • Cox says hosting contracts ended and corporate and university bookings 'dried up,' though her figure and direct causal link are reported as her on-the-record account and have not been independently verified.
  • Despite the pullback in non-acting income, Cox continues to book acting work and is promoting her memoir and a one-woman show, and she frames her experience as a relatively privileged example of broader risks.
  • Journalists note the story signals a wider market and institutional risk aversion to DEI- and trans-linked programming, a shift that could reduce funding, speaking and teaching opportunities for less-advantaged trans people.