Angelica Ross

A man is able to take me to a restaurant, but he's not able to take me home to mom. Society is still not at a place yet where they see us as family.

When I was on 'Doubt' on CBS, there was a 60-second scene, but in that 60 seconds, people were so affected because it was trans women in a very normalized situation.

What's hurtful is when you have portrayals like, you know, when you have someone like Jared Leto who accepts an award for 'Dallas Buyers Club,' after playing a trans woman, standing in a full beard and looking fully cis male: it is communicating to our audiences that underneath all of that, it's still a man under that.

I've always had big dreams and very little means.

I discovered my path to independence through technology as well as the potential for a global lifeline for trans people around the world who were looking for the same.

In 2014, I left my job and launched TransTech Social Enterprises, a for-profit and nonprofit hybrid model focusing on the well-being of the trans community, not on external profits for shareholders.

I don't know that I had context for being trans until I moved to Rochester, New York, to pursue my dream of acting, and started going to drag shows. I had never seen a transsexual before, and I didn't yet fully understand my own identity.

After I came out to my mother at 17, I ran away from home and lived with a friend. We come from a highly religious family, and she could not accept it. It was devastating, and I was depressed.

I made a naive decision, and I joined the Navy. I figured I would use the G.I. Bill to pay for any college I wanted. I dreamed of going to Julliard to study music and acting.

I was cast in commercials, music videos, and booked a lot of modeling jobs. But my acting career never took off because I was holding myself back. I was acting across from male partners who didn't know that I am trans. I was being taught by teachers who didn't know.

I used to wear so much makeup and be beat, and that would get me clocked, so then I'd wear less makeup.

Often, if someone wants to date me because they know I'm trans, it's for specifically sexual reasons, and it doesn't ever lead to a relationship.

Let's not fantasize about having a world of only trans people or only of LGBTQ people. Let's fantasize about a world in which we all can co-exist and where there is just talent that recognizes talent.

What I would love to happen is to have people at the top of their game - straight, gay, cisgender, transgender, whatever - to volunteer with us, as long as they have something of value to offer and they see the value in our community.

Having a skill makes you undeniable.

I have the drive to spend five hours a day to teach myself a skill.

I always have believed in the value of the diversity and resilience and just, really, the different skill sets that our community has. But we've never been able to find the right platform and find the right environment for us as a community - for us as a professional community.

Basically, I'm working on global domination. I plan to have members globally. What I'm looking to do is expand in a way that allows us to provide more access and take advantage of the sort of 'world is flat' technology platform, where it doesn't matter where you're located.

They were totally uplifting my work and gave me a platform, and now I have an ongoing relationship with the White House. We're working on some very, very, very big things for the trans community.

I used to work at Bloomingdale's when I was transitioning, and they didn't want me using the same bathroom as the female employees or what have you, so it was a struggle.

Visibility has an effect on those who are privileged; it brings more privilege, and on those who are marginalized, it brings more marginalization, because it also brings a spotlight onto them where they're at, in the hood or in certain places that are less tolerable.

Somebody, just because they are black, too, or just because they are trans, too, or just because they're gay and recognize I'm trans, does that mean you have the familiarity to use certain language? And I don't mean with just me but with the community.

You always have some trans girl saying, 'Oh, they were just being funny! They aren't really transphobic,' Just like you will always have some black folks defending some white person for using the 'N' word because they are 'cool.'

I actually run a nonprofit that's all about giving people opportunities to be their own heroes and do their own work.

The problem with the spectrum that is trans-ness and where people like Caitlyn Jenner lie, transitioning and being trans is more than a physical thing. Transition is a process.