From The Advocate: http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2014/02/06/op-ed-friends-piers-morgan-who-needs-enemies
Piers Morgan spent a full day making offensive statements related to transgender advocate Janet Mock. Then he invited Mock back, talked over her, and hosted a panel from which she was excluded.
BY Parker Marie Molloy
February 06 2014
For the second night in a row, Janet Mock made an appearance on Piers Morgan Live Wednesday night. The interview, billed as a chance for Mock and Morgan to clarify statements that aired the night before, left much to be desired.
The primary point of contention was whether or not Morgan was in the wrong for using terms like “formerly a man,” and “born a boy,” to describe Mock. Morgan’s tone was defensive from the first moments of the interview, as he focused on a 2011 Marie Claire feature on Mock titled, “I Was Born a Boy,” to paint Mock as a hypocrite.
“This is the piece that I’ve got in front of me,” Morgan stated. “It was the piece that made you famous. The headline is, ‘I Was Born a Boy,’ right?”
Mock pushed back, explaining that not only was she not responsible for that headline, but that she wasn’t even the author of the piece at all.
“In [my book Redefining Realness], I talk about how that piece was so problematic, and it’s problematic because we don’t let trans women say who they are,” Mock asserted. “We need to follow trans women and let them say who they are and believe them when they say that. That’s what this is about.”
Morgan continued with his defensive tone, bemoaning the “abuse” he’d suffered from Mock’s supporters over Twitter since his initial interview aired Tuesday. Morgan repeatedly asserted that he’s always been “supportive of all gay rights, gay marriage rights,” prompting Mock to jump in and inform him, “Gay rights are not transgender rights.” A seemingly frustrated Morgan asserted that he was about to get to the topic of transgender rights, chastising Mock for interrupting him.
Throughout the interview, Morgan stood by his belief that it is surgery that makes a trans woman a woman. “You’re biologically a boy, and you then had gender reassignment surgery, and you became a woman,” Morgan said, demonstrating a clear misunderstanding of what it is to be transgender. When Mock tried to explain the difference between sex and gender, Morgan talked over her and did not address the issue.
The segment continued with neither Morgan nor Mock making concessions. Morgan’s comments at the end of the interview maintained that he had been unfairly victimized, while Mock left the show clearly still confident in her belief that she is a woman, regardless of what, if any, surgery she may have undergone.
Continue reading at: http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2014/02/06/op-ed-friends-piers-morgan-who-needs-enemies
