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If you ever wanted to know how to conduct an interview with anyone in the transgender community, Piers Morgan should not be the example.

This week, transgender advocate Janet Mock appeared on CNN alongside Morgan to talk about her new book, Redefining Realness, and her advocacy of transgendered individuals. Or so she thought.

Morgan’s questions departed sharply from that altogether, instead choosing to focus on Mock’s transition “from boy to woman,” although Mock had never identified as a man. In fact, the chyron read “Janet Mock: Was a boy until age 18.”  Mock, however, identified as a girl in high school.

Morgan’s questions centered around Mock’s relationships with men and how she disclosed her transition to them — a move on his part that perpetuated the idea that trans-women trick straight men. The same idea that often results in the fear of individuals transitioning and sadly, is a catalyst for the violence geared towards them. He then posed this question to his audience: “How would you feel if you found out the woman you are dating was formerly a man?”

Mock spoke to Buzzfeed about her disappointment in the interview on Tuesday night:

“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.

She continued:

“He’s trying to do info-tainment. 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.”

She even tweeted about the botched interview, posing with transgender (and our favorite Orange Is The New Black star) Laverne Cox for a reaction picture after watching Morgan’s pre-taped interview:

And Morgan’s reaction? Well, it may just shock you.

Yes, that was Piers Morgan telling transgender supporters that he gave an accurate narrative of what it means to be transgender in America and they have no right to feel that he did otherwise.

Yes, that happened.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Mock agreed to appear on Morgan’s show to talk it out:

Hopefully Morgan can let go of some of that privilege and realize he doesn’t have the answers.

Hopefully.

SOURCE: Buzzfeed, CNN, Twitter | PHOTO CREDIT: Twitter, CNN