Being a transgender can be socially repulsive in some parts of the world where such lifestyle is treated with disdain and seen as`a taboo. However, being both a transgender and black is even more challenging but, Janet Mock has been able to break new social barriers by discussing it openly in her memoir that she published last year titled “Redefining Realness“, a self autobiography of her harrowing journey from poverty with a drug addicted father and her struggle with a body that was not in sync with her mental conception of her physical self, which psychologists term as gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder.
Her narration and discussion of this much misunderstood issue in her memoir and public discussions has earned her the status of an icon to the LGBT (Lesbian, Gays, Bisexual and Transexual) community in the United States, thus making her one of the new faces of Black Leadership according to Time. “Mock has been so crucial in changing this narrative” says actor and activist ‘Laverne Cox’.
Mock was recently invited to speak at Spelman College, a historically Black female college in Atlanta, and became the first openly transgender person to ever set foot on the college grounds. The former editor of “People“, Janet Mock is now working to educate the Black community about LGBT issues.
