''Freedom From Other People's Definitions'': An Interview With Janet Mock

Maya Schenwar @ Truthout - Toward the end of her poignant memoir, Redefining Realness, Janet Mock writes, "People often describe the journey of transsexual people as a passage through the sexes . . . My passage was an evolution from me to closer-to-me-ness. It's a journey of self-revelation." When I interviewed Mock, she echoed that phrase, this time in relation to her book itself - it's an act of self-revelation, one that aims to empower others to speak their own truths. As always, the "personal is political," but it's more than that: Mock eschews ready political categorizations, aiming for a consciousness in which personal self-determination takes center stage. In chronicling her adolescence, she writes, "My presence as a 15-year-old trans girl must've been radical to many, but to me it was truth, and my truth led me to form a womanhood all my own."  Read more.