Hello and welcome to another episode of iWay with Jamila Jamal, a podcast against shame.

I hope you're well and I hope you are ready for one of the best chats of my life.

I think this is one of my favourite episodes ever. I left this chat feeding like I was going to burst

with love and inspiration and also just information and that's really hard to evoke in people

these days because we are fatigued, we are losing hope because we're surrounded by chaos and so

that is the importance and that is the impact of Le Verne Cox. I'm so lucky I got time with her

today to have such an in-depth chat and to show aside of her that people don't always get to see.

Like we know Le Verne Cox is this extraordinary actor and model and host and activist and

you know we know her power as a trans activist and a black trans activist and she speaks up so

beautifully for women's rights and for so many different marginalised groups rights but I don't

think she fully gets her flowers as to what a fine mind she has. She is one of the most informed

and impassioned and excellent and powerful speakers I've ever met and I've ever seen speak

and I feel immensely privileged to really get into the weeds of the things that she cares about

in today's episode. In today's chat we talk about her journey to who she is now, how her first

interactions of trans women opened up her mind to who she could be and that's where hashtag Trans

is Beautiful came from which is a stunning movement she started on Instagram to reject the media's

narrative that trans people are not beautiful and free and happy and loved and loving. There's this

fear-mongering culture around trans people, this nonsensical and inaccurate fear-mongering culture

that tries to scare cis people of trans people and tries to scare trans people of themselves,

tries to tell young, impressionable trans people that you will be rejected, you will be lonely,

you will be sad, you'll be unsuccessful, you will be seen as ugly and wrong and she defies all of

that just in her existence and also in this hashtag and in all of her activism and social justice

...