Morgan “doesn’t really want to talk about trans issues, he wants to sensationalize my life,” Mock said
Katie Mcdonough
Wednesday, Feb 5, 2014
Janet Mock is a journalist, an activist, an educator and a published author with a new book to promote.
But here is the main thing you need to know about Mock, according to the caption below her name during a Tuesday appearance on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live”: “Was a boy until age 18.” (In her criticism of the segment, Mock rightly called this on-screen line “reductive thinking about gender” that suggests “only until I got the surgery, then I was a woman.”)
Mock was there to discuss her new book, “Redefining Realness,” but Piers Morgan wasn’t much interested in thoughtfully discussing her personal and professional journey as a trans woman of color or her advocacy. Morgan, like Katie Couric and other journalists covering trans* issues, was primarily interested in Mock’s anatomy and transition.
“This is the amazing thing about you,” Morgan begins the interview. “Had I not known anything about your story, I would have absolutely not a clue that you had ever been a boy — a male. Which makes me absolutely believe you always should have been a woman.”
After that tone-deaf opener, Morgan’s questions only became more sensationalist.
When discussing Mock’s current partner, Morgan asked, “When you had told these [other men you have dated] ‘the news,’ did some of them run a mile? Did others surprise you by being very supportive? I mean, how did men react?”
“I think disclosure is frightening for anyone that’s telling anyone about their past,” Mock thoughtfully responded. “For me, I think the through line there is we’re all looking for someone to love us fully for who we are. Not despite of ourselves but because of ourselves.”
After the interview aired, Mock and others criticized Morgan for his handling of the segment.
“[Morgan] doesn’t really want to talk about trans issues, he wants to sensationalize my life and not really talk about the work that I do and what the purpose of me writing this book was about,” Mock told BuzzFeed Tuesday night.
Continue reading at: http://www.salon.com/2014/02/05/piers_morgan_grills_trans_activist_janet_mock_with_invasive_sensationalist_questions/
