Indya Moore is addressing the challenges that transgender individuals often find themselves faced with while travelling! As People mentions, Moore recently partnered with travel website Orbitz alongside their Pose co-star Jeremy Pope to help raise funds for the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association, and opened up about the intersectionality of their identity.
Moore says they "don't have credibility" because of identity
Moore talked about their own experience with discrimination, revealing that a fellow traveller made an assumption about them based on racial bias. "I've never been personally victimized by transphobia while traveling, but I have been accused of being a bomber because I wore a head wrap in first class," Moore explained. "I live in a world where I don’t have credibility being a Black trans person… People don’t hear trans people telling them they are unsafe."
People shares that Moore also spoke to Travel + Leisure over the phone to discuss specific elements of travelling that can cause discomfort to transgender individuals— including having to go through the TSA body scanner at security. "It ends up putting people in a predicament when the agents assume who has what body parts just by looking at them," Moore explained. "They end up violating trans folks."
Moore acknowledges lack of LGBTQ+ accessibility to travel
Moore went on to share that they realize travelling is a luxury that not everyone in the LGBTQ+ community has access to. "I just recently came into a space where I can actually travel and get to know the world," they explained. "A lot of trans and queer people don’t get to travel because traveling costs a lot of money… It’s just not very accessible."
Moore suggested that if they are able to travel, transgender folks should consider vacation destinations like Costa Rica and Thailand— both of which are considered fairly accepting. "I just think that trans people should be able to visit any place we want to go, but we should also be careful," they said, warning that "just because the country has laws protecting trans people, it does not mean we are necessarily safe there."
"I love that I am trans"
However, Moore doesn't want transgender people to constantly live in fear— just to be aware of their surroundings! "I want us to travel, have full lives, and have so much fun," they said. "I also want us to remember that Black [transgender people] are the most vulnerable group in the world — and that we must always prioritize our safety everywhere we go.”
It's an allegory for trans identity!
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