Our icons-on-icons scrapbook just gained a new entry. Groundbreaking multi-hyphenate and Orange Is the New Black star Laverne Cox was hosting E!’s red carpet coverage of the People’s Choice Awards on Tuesday night when who should shimmy up to the mic but teen mogul and Dancing With the Stars runner-up JoJo Siwa.
The hair-bow icon was nominated for Best Competition Contestant — an honor which she won, of course — so we should have been more prepared for this legendary meeting. But alas, we were not.
“Can I just start by saying, I’m so proud of you. You are such an incredible light,” Cox said, before recalling the “electricity” of the Nickelodeon star’s first-ever performance on Dance Moms.
“Superfan!” Siwa replied, impressed by Cox’s memory.
Nearly a decade that first appearance, Siwa came out in January of this year, later sharing that she is pansexual. The young star has since embraced her position as a wildly popular role model, consistently using her platform to encourage and uplift LGBTQ+ youth.
Most recently, Siwa made history on Dancing With the Stars this season as one half of the first same-sex couple to compete on the long-running competition show. She and dance partner Jenna Johnson won the first perfect score of the season and ultimately placed second overall.
In their red-carpet moment, Cox situated Siwa’s groundbreaking run on Dancing With the Stars in the broader context of LGBTQ+ history.
“Forty years ago, it was illegal for two women to dance together in public, and two men to dance together,” Cox noted. “That was part of why the Stonewall rebellion happened.”
“So, it’s amazing that it wasn’t a big deal,” Cox continued. “It was about your talent, it was about your personality. How does it feel being such a groundbreaker?”
“It honestly feels like such an honor,” Siwa replied. “And I know what a big deal it is, too. When I had the opportunity to dance [with another woman], immediately I knew there was no other way for me to do it, because I knew what it would do for the world.”
“And I knew what it would do for little kids at home,” Siwa went on, “who maybe felt like they were afraid to love who they wanted to love. And that’s something that I’ve always said is — love who you wanna love, be who you wanna be.”
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