Famous transgender activist Janet Mock found herself in a bitter feud with CNN host Piers Morgan this week after Morgan posed many questions about Mock’s past and the physical aspects of her transition in a new interview. After a Twitter beef between the two, Mock returned to Morgan’s show and struck up another controversial debate about the lives of transgender people and her issues with him.
The ruckus began on Tuesday night, when Mock appeared on Morgan’s show to promote her new book, Redefining Realness. However, things went south when Morgan kept referring to Mock as a woman who was once a man and had the on-screen description of Mock as saying she “was a boy until age 18.”
Later that night, Mock took to Twitter and blasted Morgan and his producers.
“Was a boy until 18.” @PiersMorganLive get it the f*k together. #redefiningrealness
— Janet Mock (@janetmock) February 5, 2014
.@PiersMorganLive I was not “formerly a man.” Pls stop sensationalizing my life and misgendering trans women. #redefiningrealness
— Janet Mock (@janetmock) February 5, 2014
After receiving a severe backlash from angry Twitter fans, Morgan invited Mock back on the show and explained that he was offended that Mock Twitter bashed him and he asked her:
“I want to learn why it is so offensive to actually just say that you grew up as a boy and then, because you’ve always felt that you were female, you had surgery to become a woman, to become a real woman as you say in your book. Why is it offensive?”
“I think that one of the number one things with trans women, specifically, is that so much of our lives are open to dissection and illegitimacy and investigation and we’re constantly questioned ever since we’re very young that who we are is incorrect, wrong and should be kept secret… these are issues that I think we need to give trans people space to tell their own stories,” said Mock.
And when Morgan questioned why she didn’t correct him in the moment, Mock replied, “I did not correct you (on misgendering) because I was scared… and I think that was probably incorrect of me.”
Mock went on to explain that Morgan, his producers and the media at large sensationalize the lives and genitalia of transgender people, typically focusing solely on the idea that they changed their bodies to become another gender. However, Mock proposed that society needs to look at gender in new ways and she clarified that Morgan’s statements about her gender were false because she never identified as a man.
“I was born a baby who was assigned ‘male’ at birth,” Mock said. “I did not identify or live my life as a boy. As soon as I had enough agency in my life to grow up I became who I am. And this did not start when I was 18 and went to Thailand to have surgery. It started when I was six years old and my parents saw me for who I was and allowed me to live my life.”
Kudos to Mock for correcting Morgan on what went wrong and we hope Morgan and other people confused about the transgender community took wisdom from this debate. – nicholas robinson
