Entertainment Weekly put transgender actor Charles "Laverne" Cox dressed as the Statue of Liberty on its cover for the June 19 issue, a "special LGBT issue." The unsubtle message over his head was "AMERICA'S TRANSFORMATION." (Italics theirs.)
Inside the cover story came with a gooey headline: “Lady Liberated: Laverne Cox is the most famous transgender actress in America. She might also be the most enlightened woman in Hollywood. Now she’s just waiting for the rest of America to catch up.”
This week’s edition of People magazine is a double issue on the “Most Beautiful” people. To hit their progressive quota, People was merely the latest magazine to honor transgender actor (Charles) Laverne Cox as a “most beautiful” woman. He was “The Trailblazer.”
There were also several nods toward same-sex marriage.
Women’s magazines have been fertile propaganda ground for liberals and feminists for years. That’s even true for magazines for teenaged girls. The May issue of Seventeen is a “Get Inspired!” issue, and the cover promises inspiration from “Michelle Obama on Reaching Higher” and “Lena Dunham on Standing Out.” Transgender activist/actor Charles “Laverne” Cox offers the most propaganda-per-inch for the teens.
They also carried a six-page spread pushing the cause of 17-year-old "Dreamer" Rixa Rivera in Idaho, complete with recommendations on how to do hashtag activism for the Left.
Entertainment Weekly is all aglow at the prospect of "another milestone role in broadcast TV diversity." They reported CBS has cast transgender actor (Charles) Laverne Cox in its legal procedural pilot Doubt.
The Orange is the New Black cast member will play a transgender Ivy League-educated attorney, described as “competitive as she is compassionate. She’s fierce, funny and the fact that she’s experienced injustice first hand makes her fight all the harder for her clients.”
Tuesday's CBS This Morning broke out the kid gloves for Laverne Cox, and zeroed in on how the Orange is the New Black actor is "the first openly-transgendered woman ever nominated for an acting Emmy." Charlie Rose spotlighted how "there are people contacting you saying, my God – thank God for you being there, because they've been struggling with identity. And all of a sudden, you give them hope."
When Norah O'Donnell touted how her guest's Time magazine cover was "second to the Pope, in terms of interest online," Cox underlined the apparent divine plan behind this success, but then asserted that his biological identity was foisted upon him: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
As the circulation of weekly newsmagazines continues to decline, their editors and staffs hope to draw in new readers -- as well as the people they've lost over the past few decades -- with covers that focus on controversial topics.
The latest example of this ploy is the new issue of Time magazine, which depicts transgender African-American actress and “sexual diversity advocate” Laverne Cox on its cover next to the title “The Transgender Tipping Point: America's Next Civil Rights Frontier.”
The New York Times carries the sermonizing flavor of "Can I get an Amen?" when it turns to topics on the “LGBT” agenda. The Thursday Styles section could be called the Aren’t They Fabulous? section.
The top half of Thursday’s section was a huge picture of a “trans man” and a “trans woman” in love, illustrating a Jacob Bernstein story appropriately headlined “In Their Own Terms: From art to advertising, transgender people are increasingly visible in popular culture.” The Times itself makes that visibility a priority, devoting an entire inside page to profiling prominent figures in the “gender nonconforming” movement. Bernstein, the son of Watergate star Carl Bernstein, called them "trans-superstars" on Twitter.