Boy, Piers Morgan dug himself a deep hole on Wednesday (Feb. 5).After his interview with transgender activist and author Janet Mock on "Piers Morgan Tonight" on Tuesday, in which he focused on her physical characteristics prior to her transition, the CNN anchor received a barrage of angry tweets calling him out on his ignorance for the transgender community.
So, what did Morgan do to prove his support for the community? He invited Mock back to his show to demand an explanation over why she and her community took issue with how he handled their initial conversation.
Never once did Morgan take the opportunity to admit that maybe he didn't understand how Mock and her community would prefer to be treated. Rather, he continually whined that, as a supporter of gay and transgender rights, it wasn't fair that he'd been called out for his bungling of the prior interview.
"Maybe you don't get it because you're not a trans woman," Mock rebutted, which should've been enough, but Morgan wouldn't get it go.
He continued to press why Mock didn't address her misgivings during the interview. "I did not because I was scared," she admitted. "And I wanted to be a cordial guest, and I think that was probably wrong as me."
"I don't want this to be a hostile encounter," Morgan said, as he continued to demand reparations for the vilification he received from the transgender community.
Bringing up a piece on Mock in Marie Claire as his defense, the activist instantly shut him down. "That piece should not have been the basis of our interview, though, Piers. I wrote the record of my life. That took me three years."
Morgan pressed on, asking why the Marie Claire piece, titled "I Was Born a Boy," shouldn't have been proper source material. Mock was q uick with her reply: "Which I critiqued, ten minutes into my book."
It was made clear that Morgan never review Mock's book. It was also made clear that Morgan has no true understanding of the plight of the transgender community. It's one thing to claim you support a community. That's all well and good. But if you can't be bothered to understand what the community's aims are, and you demand an apology for yourself when you're taken to task by said community for your ignorant behavior, than you can't call yourself a supporter.
Piers, you had an opportunity to bring Mock back, admit that, even though you support the transgender community, you failed to represent them in a way that they'd appreciate and further a positive conversation about a little understood community. Instead, your ego got the best of you and you proved that none of this was about a minority community. Instead, this was all about you and how "supportive" you could be.
Hate to break it to you , Piers, but you failed.
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