may or may not have had, it s not how i disclose my gender to people. it s about who i am right now. i m janet mock, author of redefining realness a fierce transadvocate. and i had continue to be exactly that. that s what i was on this show to do. if i spoke out every single time that someone said called me out of my name or labelled me as something that i m not i would not have time to advocate for the fierce and urgent issues in my community. issues of poverty and joblessness, of a lack of health care, of violence, verbal and physical violence against transwomen. how does it help you, janet, that somebody like me who has been such an open supporter of the community that you represent so well and so publicly, that you target me for what you knew would be a load of abuse that then followed? you did. the tweets last night ignited a firestorm of abuse and vilification my way. you said i had sensationalized your story. i was not formerly a man or a boy.
though i had been born a boy to my native hawaiian mother, the first page, the next day there were only dogs okay for me, a boy, to play with. and then another reference here on the last page something about my path conversation with aaron who s your boyfriend. i calmly said i was born a boy. so i can kind of give you that you weren t writing the headlines, but do you really expect me to believe in a piece that you personally signed off on, in which you were made famous in which you repeatedly call yourself a boy? i did not write that piece, piers. i also wrote a followup piece essay critiquing that just like i critiqued this episode. i read that. in the book in the introduction of my book i talk about how that piece was so problematic. it s problematic we don t let transwomen say who they are. we need to follow transwomen and let them say who they are and believe them when they say that. that s what this is about, this is not about twitter. that s why i was not engaging tod
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 were very young that who we are is incorrect, wrong, and should be kept seek secret. and i think that being someone that is very visible and in a stigmatized community, i am a transwoman of color. i m a young woman. and these are issues that i think we need to give transpeople space to tell their own stories. we should follow the lead of people who are out there and being visible and advocating for these rights. that s exactly why i had you on the show, why i promoted your book. why i told everybody to go read the damn thing. so i ask you again, why have i been vilified for being transparently supportive of you? i don t get it. maybe you don t get it because you re not a transwoman. transwomen are explain to me what i did wrong. what did i do wrong? so before commercial break,