You’ve seen her on TV in American Horror Story and Pose, where she made history as the first transgender woman to appear in two series’ regular acting roles. Earlier this month, she delivered this year’s LGBTQ State of the Union address, urging President Joe Biden to do more to protect transgender youth and joined him in calling on Congress to pass the Equality Act. She is also the first out trans person to host a presidential forum, which was co-hosted by GLAAD.

And since 2014, she has been the CEO of a trailblazing business, TransTech Social Enterprises, that is hosting a free online summit, starting today, featuring more than 60 speakers on several topics, from coding careers to health and wellness to racial and social justice. It’s timed to coincide with the Transgender Day of Visibility, or TDOV.

Angelica Ross is one busy woman, with a backstory that seems made for Hollywood.

She came out as gay at 17, and started her gender transition in 2000 at age 19. Raised in Racine, Wisc., Ross has worked in food service, as a lounge singer, as a model and escort, and dropped out of college after one semester to enlist in the U.S. Navy, so she could qualify for the G.I. Bill. Ross served and survived harassment in the ranks, and was discharged under the now-repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that forbid military servicemembers from expressing themselves as LGBTQ.

In a recent interview via Zoom, Ross told me the death of her character on Pose, Candy Ferocity, reminded her of the startling statistic that while most Black cisgender women in America have a life expectancy of 78, the average Black trans woman isn’t expected to survive past 35.

Ross is 41.

“Honestly, in half of that and at least 20 of those years, I've been living frugally as a trans woman,” she said. “And things have changed a lot, but some things have not changed, in the violence against trans people both state sanctioned and systemic violence, as well as inter-community violence and street-based violence. It's violence at every turn for a lot of trans folks, and I can't believe that we're still dealing with these issues. But I do feel like we are changing hearts and minds, we're getting more people to care. The moment that I realized people were crying around the world for Candy Ferocity was the moment I knew that door had opened up for people to care about trans people in their own cities.”

This year’s TransTech Summit is all virtual, and all free. It runs from today through April 3rd, and according to its website, “provides attendees with tools to grow their existing careers, interact with new media technology, network with other LGBTQIA people, learn new skills, and access additional training tools.”

Last year’s summit welcomed 1,300 people across six continents, said Ross. She’s expecting even more attendees this time around, and wants to be clear about what they’ll get from an event with the word “tech” featured so prominently.

“The biggest message that I'm trying to get across with the summit is that when I say ‘tech,’ I mean so many more things than just coding. It's an amazing thing when someone discovers that sort of intersection of where technology meets their passion, what they're passionate about, and that can be so many different things. So, for me, my biggest goal with TransTech was to create your unconventional discovery zone. You know, when I was a kid in the Midwest, we had these Discovery Zones, like a science museum that we would go to, and tech was just so elite. It was such an elite conversation. And I think one of our greatest achievements has been breaking that down and having a more accessible conversation around tech.”

Given what’s happening in the country today, with Oklahoma and Arizona becoming the 13th and 14th states to enact anti-transgender legislation, Ross’s summit covers topics such as diversity, representation and inclusion and human rights.

These issues are having a real impact. According to a recent poll conducted on behalf of The Trevor Project:

• 85% of trans and nonbinary youth—and two-thirds of all LGBTQ youth—say recent debates about state laws restricting the rights of transgender people have negatively impacted their mental health.
• When asked about legislation that bans doctors from prescribing gender-affirming medical care like puberty blockers or hormone therapy, 73% of trans and nonbinary youth said it made them feel angry.
• 57% felt sad
• 47% felt stressed
• 40% felt scared
• More than 1 in 3 felt hopeless, helpless, and/or nervous.

Those feelings can have terrible results. The Trevor Project's 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found more than half—52%—of trans and nonbinary youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year—and 1 in 5 attempted suicide. But these young people attempt suicide less when respect is given to their pronouns, when they are allowed to officially change their legal documents, and when they have access to spaces that affirm their gender identity.

Ross knows rejection, intimately, because her relationship with her evangelical Christian mother fell apart after she came out. I asked her, had time and her success mended that rift?

“It took over a decade for me and my mother to heal our relationship,” she said. “I can remember telling her a long time ago: ‘Pay attention, because this isn't just for me, your purpose: Our purpose is tied together.’ And it was, for me, that much more clear, when we were both standing on the stage for Oprah Winfrey Network and in the Black Women OWN the Conversation. My mother admitted in front of a crowd of over 100 Black women that she asked me to commit suicide. She realized how much of a grave mistake that she had made, but that she didn't know any better and that all she knew is what her religion taught her.

“At some point, she had to break away from that and see her child and see that she needed to be there for her child and get to know her child, and that it would have been a grave loss as she saw other trans people being murdered and killed and whose lives were cut short. She said, ‘I don't want that to be my fate where I lose my child and I never knew them and I never celebrated them.’”

Ross said since then, her mother has attended all but one of her premieres and stood proudly by her side. “There's a saying that time heals all things, and you know, I do believe in that now.”

She credits her spirituality and faith with giving her the strength to overcome personal challenges. “Buddhism gave me the the abstract space to be, in that my transness could be affirmed, and that my spirit could be affirmed,” said Ross, who has a book in the works about the benefits of creating a spiritual foundation, which will be released at Audible.com later this year.

To learn more about the TransTech Summit and to register to attend, click here.

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