2/5/2014 Transgender Advocate Janet Mock: Piers Morgan "Sensationalized" My Story

http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/transgender-advocate-janet-mock-piers-morgan-sensationalized 1/5

WASHINGTON — Transgender advocate Janet Mock accused CNN’s Piers Morgan

of seeking to “sensationalize” her life after Morgan and his producers focused

intensely on Mock’s past and physical aspects of her transition in an interview

coinciding with the release of her book, Redefining Realness.

Morgan ended the first segment of the Piers Morgan Live interview by saying that

Mock at one point had to tell the man she was dating that “you used to be yourself

a man” — although Mock has never identified as a man.

The on-screen description of Mock was that she “was a boy until age 18,” although

she was identifying as a girl in high school, and the Piers Morgan Live Twitter

account posed the question during the interview, “How would you feel if you found

out the woman you are dating was formerly a man?”

“He’s trying to do info-tainment,” Mock told BuzzFeed Tuesday night. “He 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.”

2/5/2014 Transgender Advocate Janet Mock: Piers Morgan "Sensationalized" My Story

http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/transgender-advocate-janet-mock-piers-morgan-sensationalized 2/5

Mock told BuzzFeed that Morgan’s interest in her conversations with her boyfriend

and the show’s identification of her departed sharply from the story she seeks to

tell.

“My book is not about Aaron or my relationship, but that’s the most sensational

thing they want to pull out,” she said. “They’re not talking about my advocacy or

anything like that, it’s just about this most sensationalized … meme of discussion of

trans women’s lives: ‘We’re not real women, so therefore if we’re in relationships

with men we’re deceiving them.’ So, it just feeds into those same kinds of myths

and fears that they spread around, which leads to further violence of trans women’s

bodies and identities.”

The on-screen line that she “was a boy until age 18” reflected “bad judgment” and

“reductive thinking about gender,” she said.

“What they’re saying is, ‘Only until I got the surgery, then I was a woman,’” she said.

But, she said, the interview — for better and worse — is part of want she chose to

do by “going out of the bubble” and being public with her story.

“This is my first mainstream television show, was that moment, with Piers Morgan,

and you see what they did to my story. Compared to a moment if I’m on Melissa

Harris-Perry, which is slightly different, a more sensitive and safe space. But I go

onto Piers Morgan, and all of my followers and everyone are like, ‘What is this?’”

she said. But, she noted, “It’s also more representative of the ignorance that there

is about trans people’s lives. We’re out of the safe bubble of social justice.”

2/5/2014 Transgender Advocate Janet Mock: Piers Morgan "Sensationalized" My Story

http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/transgender-advocate-janet-mock-piers-morgan-sensationalized 3/5

Me + @Lavernecox's reaction after @piersmorganlive tried it with the"man" and "boy" tag lines. #redefiningrealness

Janet Mock@janetmock

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9:54 PM - 4 Feb 14 Reply Retweet Favorite

So, Mock — who was with actress and trans advocate Laverne Cox and many others

at her book launch party as the pre-taped interview aired — struck back:

responding on Twitter by sending out a “reaction shot” photo of her and Cox.

“I was just sitting with Laverne, we’re at my party, and that’s why we made that

face,” Mock said. “To have a moment that’s just like, ‘This is still our lives. You can

try to do what you want and try to editorialize our lives and reduce it, but we know

what our lives are. And we still stake claim to our own identities and our lives.”

She noted how social media has changed the tables on interviews like Tuesday’s

with Morgan or like the interview that Cox and Carmen Carrera had with Katie

Couric last month.

“That’s the special thing about social media now is that we can talk back. Piers

doesn’t have the final say. And we read him,” she said. “Our media is just as valid.

What we create ourselves, with that one Twitter picture.

“It also empowers our followers, too, who are watching us and wondering, ‘How do

you handle this?’ And it shows that we’re not broken by this, we expected this. We

didn’t expect greatness and sensitivity from him, but a part of doing that work and

showing visibility and support is by going on those shows and being in those testy

2/5/2014 Transgender Advocate Janet Mock: Piers Morgan "Sensationalized" My Story

http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/transgender-advocate-janet-mock-piers-morgan-sensationalized 4/5

waters and seeing, ‘How can we navigate it and still rise above it in a sense?’”

Morgan, for his part, expressed on Twitter that he saw nothing to “rise above,”

tweeting:

A lot of very irate people accusing me of 'transphobia' because I

devoted a third of my show to @JanetMock 's inspiring story. Weird.

Piers Morgan@piersmorgan

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10:20 PM - 4 Feb 14 Reply Retweet Favorite

For the record, I'm not anything-phobic. We'll, apart from Madonna-

phobic obviously.

Piers Morgan@piersmorgan

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10:24 PM - 4 Feb 14 Reply Retweet Favorite

Update at 12:15 a.m.:

Very disappointed in @janetmock 's tweets tonight. Deliberately, and

falsely, fuelling some sense of me being 'transphobic'. Unpleasant.

Piers Morgan@piersmorgan

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12:15 AM - 5 Feb 14 Reply Retweet Favorite

Update at 12:30 a.m.: CNN has changed its onlinedescription of the interview:

Update at 1:05 a.m.:

I've never been subjected to the kind of nonsense that @janetmock

and her supporters are accusing me of now...wish I'd never booked

her.

Piers Morgan@piersmorgan

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1:00 AM - 5 Feb 14 Reply Retweet Favorite

Update at 1:20 a.m.: Not done yet:

Oh, stop it. You 'get it the f**k together'..seriously. > RT @janetmock"Was a boy until 18." @PiersMorganLive get it the f*k together.

Piers Morgan@piersmorgan

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1:02 AM - 5 Feb 14 Reply Retweet Favorite

For the record, @janetmock had no problem at the time with our

interview - but now seems keen to score cheap points. Very

Piers Morgan@piersmorgan

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2/5/2014 Transgender Advocate Janet Mock: Piers Morgan "Sensationalized" My Story

http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/transgender-advocate-janet-mock-piers-morgan-sensationalized 5/5

54,469 Views · Tagged:janet mock, piers morgan

disappointing.

1:09 AM - 5 Feb 14 Reply Retweet Favorite

As for all the enraged transgender supporters, look at how STUPID

you're being. I'm on your side, you dimwits. @janetmock

Piers Morgan@piersmorgan

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1:16 AM - 5 Feb 14 Reply Retweet Favorite

Update at 1:40 a.m.: Full circle:

And now she runs to @BuzzFeed to cry foul... I've been played in a

disgustingly cynical manner. > http://t.co/hbXCeTM0XH …

Piers Morgan@piersmorgan

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1:35 AM - 5 Feb 14 Reply Retweet Favorite

I'll deal with you tomorrow night on air @janetmock - never beentreated in such a disgraceful manner. Be proud.

Piers Morgan@piersmorgan

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1:36 AM - 5 Feb 14 Reply Retweet Favorite

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