Actress and model Indya Moore slays the cover of V magazine, and inside the article, the 26-year-old Pose star discusses activism, growing up in a religious household, being vilified by her parents before entering foster care at14, and spirituality.
The following looks that you will see throughout the article were in collaboration between the actorvist and Tommy Hillfiger.
Check out a few highlights from the interview, which was conducted by Adrienne Maree Brown below…
On Being an Activist:
I definitely made it a choice. It definitely was a choice, and I love that you asked that question, because I feel like so much of people’s grounding is rooted in the purpose we feel we have. In this world, a lot of us feel stateless and purposeless, and I think we all come into this world knowing there’s something to be done. And identifying how we connect to whatever it is that needs to be done is a life journey for a lot of us. But I find that in the realm of purpose, it’s a question that comes to all of us and I know it comes to all of us for a reason. I understand purpose as something you create for yourself. Intuitively, however, it feels wrong, whatever you feel that you can impact.
AMB: And what drew you? What was the spark for you?
IM: I think just my experience in the world. It was very easy for me to say, I don’t want people to go through this. I don’t want the cycle to continue, I want to move forward. I think every queer person goes through a time in their life where they’re at a crossroads of understanding queerness through a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ kind of binary. It’s like “alright, is who I am wrong, or not? What is this? Because I’m getting so many messages.” It’s all very confusing. I know how I feel, but the world seems to continue to create messages that it’s wrong for me to exist in the way that I do and feel the way that I do. I think when I came to my crossroads, I realized how stupid it was that we live in a world that just so heavily criminalizes queerness. For me, in my experience, it was spiritual. I was raised very Christian, my mom was a Jehovah’s Witness and my dad inherited Catholicism.
On If Joining Pose Became an Indication of Change in Regards to How Trans and Queer People Were Being Treated on TV:
I think change is just progress, and progress isn’t necessarily the end. And it’s not necessarily an extended beginning either. I think it was both, definitely both. I came into Pose already impassioned about the way change was possible, but I think the communities that I had access to—nobody can grow in a room by themselves, and so much of that was my experience. Growing up, I was frequently isolated. Being raised [as a] Jehovah’s Witness, they’re very strict, so I didn’t have any friends or get to practice social skills with other people. So finding a community in foster care was very complicated. Foster care is very much…it was just very hard. I was traumatized, and they didn’t know how to navigate that in foster care. They medicated me because I was traumatized from abuse and PTSD. They misdiagnosed me, as happens to a lot of kids in foster care and in group home spaces. It was just like living in trauma soup all the time. Having to experience the manifestations of trauma in other people in my community. And that was often really violent and harmful, as well. So it was just a lot. It’s very hard to find community and build and grow in a direction that I was really happy with. Just not having influences or directions for a long time made it very hard, but my spirit wanted change nevertheless.
I was just having a conversation about how I chose peace and joy for myself at a very early point in my life. When I was twelve years old, I remember constantly choosing that I could claim peace and joy for myself. It was corny for a lot of kids in school, the thought of peace and joy. But you know, for me, I was just like: why can’t I claim that for myself? Why isn’t peace something that I can say that I want for myself and other people? So I feel like that was the beginning of my interest in being a part of change. So Pose was a really beautiful conduit for that.
On Being Punished For Identifying As Female Even Thought They Were Born Male, And The Pressure Of Identifying As More Masculine:
‘I think every queer person goes through a time in their life where they’re at a crossroads of understanding queerness through a “right” and “wrong” kind of binary.’
‘It’s like, “Alright, is who I am wrong, or not? What is this? Because I’m getting so many messages.” It’s all very confusing. I know how I feel, but the world seems to continue to create messages that it’s wrong for me to exist in the way that I do and feel the way that I do.’
On Grappling With Loving God and a God Who, According To Religious Bigots Rejects People Like Her:
‘I realized how stupid it was that we live in a world that just so heavily criminalizes queerness,’ she said. ‘It was spiritual. I was raised very Christian, my mom was a Jehovah’s Witness and my dad inherited Catholicism.
‘It was just really interesting to see myself process my own principles around myself and my own ethical grounding around myself, and realizing how stupid it is that spiritual bias exists.
‘It was just like, wow, how can we simultaneously create these teachings about God being such a loving person, but there seems to be character traits of who is spiritually eligible to access God?
‘So I realized how stupid that was, and I just knew that God would not be pleased or happy with the ways that I suffered because of what people thought they were doing in the name of God, or whatever excuse peoples used to create false harm and misery.
On Collaborating With Tommy Hillfiger:
‘I don’t ever try to hide my socio-political boundaries or standards, because they’re very important [in creating] greater safety for people like me,’ she said.
‘I made sure that my involvement in Tommy was as inclusive as possible, in every way that it could be,’ she added.
‘I made sure that the team was right, also making sure they’re hiring our folks behind [the scenes] and in front. I made sure that this is a project that is a continuum of something they’re actually working on, not just a moment.’
To read the rest of the article, click here
Check out more photos below…
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