Last week, the 13th annual SCAD TVfest took place in Atlanta, Georgia. The festival aims to put the spotlight on the latest in design, creativity, and innovation on television, streaming, and digital media. This year, SCAD honored actress and activist Laverne Cox with the Impact Award, for her new series Clean Slate.
The Amazon Prime Video series Clean Slate, which Cox not only stars in, but co-created and executive produced, tells the story of a trans woman reconnecting with her father in Alabama after 17 years of estrangement.
Before premiering 2 episodes of the series at SCAD TVfest, Cox took the stage to accept the Impact Award and talk about standing up for the trans community amid the constant attacks from the Trump Administration.
She expressed gratitude for her award but shared that, “These honors have not changed the material reality of the majority of trans people in this country and around the world. The reality is that most trans people in this country are poor and working class. The reality of the lives of most trans people, particularly trans youth in this country that over the past several years, they have been fleeing states who have passed laws banning gender affirming care, laws that would criminalize parents that support their trans kids. And so, families have been fleeing states for several years. And mostly states that are here in the south.”
“It might be too little, too late,” she warned the crowd. “The system is rigged in favor of corporations, plutocrats, oligarchs, the wealthy.”
She continued to say, “So much of what is happening under in this chaotic new administration is blatantly illegal. If you read Project 2025 — it was quite a read — none of this is surprising. And it is the jobs of our elected representatives and the amazing organizations who are suing this administration to challenge them and to resist at every point.”
“They are committed to eradicating trans people from public life, they’ve said it blatantly,” Cox said. “They said it in everything that they have done. This is not a distraction. This is part of their agenda… When states pass laws that criminalize, stigmatize trans people, it emboldens the public to do the same thing, to commit violence against trans people. Violence against trans youth has skyrocketed in states that pass discriminatory policies affecting trans people. When the state sanctions discrimination against us, it emboldens citizens to commit violence against us, and it is heartbreaking. And it has been heartbreaking for years what trans people, and particularly trans youth, have experienced.”
She closed with a message of hope, “I want to say how much I love all of you and how grateful I am. We need our allies more than ever right now as LGBTQ+ people. If you say you’re with us, girl, this is the time to show it. In a substantial way, a material way. For us to be there for each other, across all our differences.” She quoted Brene Brown, saying, “Love is not something we give or get; it is something we nurture and grow, a connection that can be cultivated between two people only when it exists within each of them- we can love others only as much as we love ourselves.’ She ends by saying, ‘Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and withholding affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can survive these injuries only if they’re acknowledged, healed, and rare.’”
Read her full speech here.
After the screening, Cox took part in a Q&A panel, featuring Clean Slate co-creator, executive producer, and actor George Wallace, along with actors D.K. Uzoukwu, Norah Murphy, Telma Hopkins, Jay Wilkison, and writer Shomari Kirkwood.
Clean Slate is streaming now on Prime Video.