Indya Moore has become the first trans person to feature on the front cover of Elle Magazine.
The actress and model is featured on the magazine’s June issue with an accompanying article profiling their experiences.
The 24-year-old Moore is best known for their starring role in hit TV series Pose, where they star as sex worker, Angel. Moore’s preferred pronouns are they/them/theirs.
Pose, which began airing on Fox last year, has received high praise for casting trans people in starring roles.
‘They expected me to be masculine or to perform the way they thought young boys should perform’
In an interview with Elle, Moore spoke about how their parents struggled to come to terms with them as a trans youth.
‘Because I was assigned male at birth, they expected me to be masculine or to perform the way they thought young boys should perform. And I did not,’ Moore says.
‘They didn’t understand. They had never experienced what it was like to have a family member who was genderqueer.’
Victim of sex trafficking
Moore says they left home when they were only 14-years-old. They later became the victim of sex trafficking.
They discusses how they were contacted on Facebook by people who offered them hormone therapy in exchange for sex.
‘They told me that they had a lot of friends who were trans and they wanted to help me in my process, and that they could help me to get the money that I needed to be a woman,’ they say.
‘They told me that all I had to do was play with these men who will come in for a moment to see me and play with me and then they’ll give me money.’
Looking back, they say they ‘didn’t understand’ what sex trafficking was at the time.
‘I just knew my life was going to change’
However, Moore found their big break when cast by Ryan Murphy for Pose. When recruited for the show, they experienced an almost instantaneous move from homelessness to stardom.
‘I just knew my life was going to change. I knew I had a chance to teach the world something that would help more people to be safe,’ they say.
In a video accompanying their cover story, Moore talks about how trans liberation and remaining socially conscious are at the forefront of their mind.
‘I don’t know how to have fun,’ they say. ‘When I’m around people having conversations about their day, I’m looking at them, like, “What could they possibly be talking about? How are we not talking about deconstructing white supremacy right now? How are we not trying to save trans people?”‘
Moore adds: ‘I don’t know who I am outside of someone who’s just trying to be free and find safety for myself and for others.’