The White Lotus star Carrie Coon has doubled down on her support for the transgender community after facing backlash for her Transgender Day of Visibility post on social media.
Coon marked Transgender Day of Visibility, which takes place annually on 31 March, via her X/Twitter account yesterday.
In her post, she urged her fans to be wary of those who claim that bolstering trans rights somehow takes rights away from other people.
“On this International Day of Transgender Visibility, remember that offering civil rights and protections to our transgender community in the United States doesn’t take anything away from anybody,” the actress wrote.
“And beware of anyone who tells you otherwise,” she added, alongside the #TransDayOfVisibility hashtag.
While the Gone Girl and The Gilded Age star was met with a flurry of supportive responses to her post – “Carrie Coon rules”; “Thank you for saying this queen” et cetera – she was unsurprisingly hit with a number of vehemently anti-trans replies, too.
One such responder suggested that if Coon believes trans women should be able to compete in female sports contests, then she is “way off base”.
“Take your woke DEI [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] agenda and stick it,” the commenter politely added.
Coon refused to cower to the troll though, clapping back and doubling down on her support for the community.
On this International Day of Transgender Visibility, remember that offering civil rights and protections to our transgender community in the United States doesn’t take anything away from anybody and beware of anyone who tells you otherwise. #TransDayOfVisibility
— Carrie Coon (@carriecoon) March 31, 2025
You’ve signed on to this culture war to “protect” girls from approximately 5 athletes in middle and high school? Get a life. I played college sports. I looked like a boy until I was 17 and the gym teacher kept putting on the boys team. The only thing it ever made me was better. https://t.co/J4BLqnFycn
— Carrie Coon (@carriecoon) April 1, 2025
“You’ve signed on to this culture war to ‘protect’ girls from approximately 5 athletes in middle and high school? Get a life,” she urged.
“I played college sports. I looked like a boy until I was 17 and the gym teacher kept putting on the boys team. The only thing it ever made me was better.”
According to data from Save Women’s Sports, one of the leading campaign groups aiming to ban trans women athletes from competing in women’s sports, there are as little as five trans girls competing in girls’ school sports teams across the US, from grades K to 12 (ages five to eighteen).
Carrie Coon also marked Transgender Day of Visibility by providing more context to her headline-making revelation that her character on The White Lotus was meant to have a non-binary child.
In the third season of Mike White’s black comedy, Coon plays Laurie, one of three older women on a girl’s holiday. Yet their friendship is increasingly fractured and each gossip about the other behind their backs.
In one scene, Laurie’s religious friend Kate reveals that she is politically independent, but hints that she voted for Donald Trump in the presidential election.
Coon has since revealed that Laurie was meant to have a child who used they/them pronouns, but the line was cut following Trump’s election win in November.
“You originally found out that her daughter was actually non-binary, maybe trans and going by they/them. You see Laurie struggling to explain it to her friends, struggling to use they/them pronouns, struggling with the language, which was all interesting,” Coon told Harper’s Bazaar.
“It was only a short scene, but for me, it did make the question of whether Kate voted for Trump so much more provocative and personally offensive to Laurie, considering who her child is in the world.”
Coon explained that, “considering the way the Trump administration has weaponised the cultural war against transgender people even more since then, when the time came to cut the episode down, Mike felt that the scene was so small and the topic so big that it wasn’t the right way to engage in that conversation”.
On social media, one The White Lotus fan and apparent historian suggested that the original plot would have seen both Laurie’s friends, Kate and Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), reject the identity of Laurie’s child.
“[The poster] is not correct about the plot here,” Coon responded. “She jumps to a lot of conclusions without much context, which is surprising for a historian. She’s right that Mike White does not shy away from divisive topics and engages with them thoughtfully and unexpectedly, unlike the example below.”
The Avengers actress then confirmed the scene was simply cut as White felt the scene wouldn’t have been long enough to address non-binary identities with the “nuance and care required”.
The White Lotus season three finale airs on Sunday 6 April on HBO in the US and Monday 7 April on Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK.
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