LatinXcellence: Indya Moore

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Here at People CHICA we celebrate our Latinidad 365 days a year, but during Latinx Heritage Month, we go extra hard. Established in 1988, Latinx Heritage Month recognizes the generations of Latinx Americans who have positively influenced and enhanced our society. All month long, we'll be celebrating with a series called #LatinXcellence, highlighting women who are making a difference in Latinx culture today through their art, work and activism.

Pose has become such a cultural phenomenon that it's hard to remember how far Hollywood has come with regard to trans representation, but it was just five years ago that Laverne Cox became the first transgender person to be nominated for an acting Emmy. Now Pose has the largest transgender cast on TV, and the show's stars are paving the way for a more inclusive Hollywood. Indya Moore, who plays sex-worker-turned-model Angel, has become one of the show's breakout stars, as well as one of its fiercest advocates for change. "I want to demonstrate defense and not always being a victim, because trans people are constantly, constantly victimized in our narratives all the time, but we never get to see ourselves as heroes," Moore told Teen Vogue earlier this year. "We never get to see ourselves as protectors. We never get to see ourselves as fighting back. We always see ourselves being oppressed. That's not my reality.”

Born and raised in the Bronx, Moore left her home at a very young age. "My birth parents loved me dearly, but we were having issues with my identity being recognized at home," Moore told The Cut last year. Moore started modeling at age 15, and later, while working as an extra on the Netflix show The Get Down, they met José Gutirrez Xtravaganza, the choreographer behind Madonna's “Vogue” video. Xtravaganza encouraged Moore to audition for the film Saturday Church, which led to an audition for Pose. Two seasons in (with a third on the way), Moore has since helped lead the show to critical acclaim and multiple awards, including a Peabody, an AFI Award and a GLAAD Media Award.

Even before Pose, Moore saw themselves as an advocate for the trans and nonbinary communities. "I didn't see that stopping with my entry into this industry, but people are going to be afraid of what you're going to say," Moore has said. "I'm going to bump heads with people that benefit from the oppression that they put trans people through. I'm putting my life at risk. I say things that are very uncomfortable with and make people angry, because they don't want me to use my platform to tell the truth. They don't want me to use my platform in ways that benefit the people that they help marginalize. They just want me to sit around and look pretty. That's just not who I am.”

The Afro-Taína made history this year at Daily Front Row's Fashion Media Awards, where they received the Cover of the Year award for becoming Elle 's magazine's first transgender cover star. At the event, Moore made a statement with custom earrings bearing the faces of 16 trans women who were murdered this year. “Just like me, these women dared to exhaust their freedom to exist by being visible,” they said, accepting the award. “However, instead of being celebrated they're punished for it.”

Moore currently serves as a face of Louis Vuitton and will soon appear in Magic Hour, a reimagining of Frankenstein. No matter what, though, Moore will keep advocating for themselves and others. “You cannot raise your children to have a sexuality or to be a certain kind of gender identity,” they said in their Daily Front Row speech. But you can raise them to love and respect themselves and others. We don't deserve to live in fear.”