Redefining Realness (32 page)
Read Redefining Realness Online
Authors: Janet Mock
Thank you to Lea Goldman and Kierna Mayo for making the
Marie Claire
feature come to fruition; my former colleagues at People.com for being there as I realized a dream; and the guys at Native Bean for welcoming me with smiles and lattes as I wrote my first draft.
The following people offered me insights, resources, and validation as I developed my mission and completed this book. Thank you, Marie Brown, Cecilia Chung, Laverne Cox, Michaela angela Davis, reina gossett, bell hooks, Isis King, Stephanie Laffin, Zakiya Lord, Kimberley McLeod, Monika MHz, Darnell Moore, Catherine Pino, Jen Richards, Monica Roberts, Angelica Ross, Kiara St. James, Jon Stryker, Chris Tuttle, Tiffany R. Warren, Bali White, and many more who may not be listed but aren’t forgotten.
Many thanks to my online comrades. Your tweets, reblogs, likes, follows, messages, and comments have affirmed me, challenged me, and embraced me. I’m also grateful to every woman who contributed to #girlslikeus, showing the collective power of our stories, and those who told me my story moved them, resonated with them, and filled them with possibility. I am so humbled. Thank you.
Finally, this book is for my sisters, my siblings, my elders, and my foremothers (Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and Miss Major
Griffin-Gracy) who lit the torch, illuminating a pathway to navigate a system not built for us. The only reason I am here today and am able to write is because you resisted, found your freedom, and showed me how to do the same. I’m in awe of your resilience
and
brilliance.
J
anet Mock is a writer who stepped onto the national stage in 2011 with a profile about her journey to womanhood in
Marie Claire
magazine. A believer in the power of storytelling, Janet writes and speaks about her experience of living at the intersections of multiple identities.
In 2013, she was featured in the HBO documentary
The OUT List
about prominent LGBTQ figures, discussed cultural politics on MSNBC’s
Melissa Harris-Perry
show, and joined the board of directors of the Arcus Foundation. Her work has been recognized by the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, ADCOLOR, the Anti-Violence Project, the Center for American Progress, GLAAD, and the Women’s Media Center.
A native of Honolulu, Janet attended the University of Hawai‘i at Maānoa, earned her MA in journalism from New York University, and wielded her encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture as an editor for People.com,
People
magazine’s website.
She lives with the man and the dog of her dreams in New York City. Follow her on Twitter at
@janetmock
, where she established #Girlslikeus, a movement encouraging trans women to live visibly.
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Copyright © 2014 by Janet Mock
Poem on
page 141
from
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.
Copyright © 1987, 1999, 2007 by Gloria Anzaldúa. Reprinted by permission of Aunt Lute Books.
www.auntlute.com
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First Atria Books hardcover edition February 2014
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Interior design by Jill Putorti
Jacket design by John Vairo
Jacket photograph by Aaron Tredwell
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mock, Janet.
Redefining realness : my path to womanhood, identity, love & so much more/ by Janet Mock. — First Atria Books hardcover edition.
pages cm
1. Mock, Janet. 2. Transgender people—United States—Biography. 3. Racially mixed people—United States—Biography. 4. Gender identity—United States—Case studies. 5. Self-actualization (Psychology)—Case studies. I. Title.
HQ77.8.M63A3 2014
306.76'8—dc23 2013047625
ISBN 978-1-4767-0912-3
ISBN 978-1-4767-0914-7 (ebook)