Stephen Colbert And Janet Mock Tackle Problems In Media Coverage Of Transgender Community

Recently, there have been several instances of trans people being interviewed in the mainstream media where the interviewers have just gotten it wrong. Some of it is just well-intentioned ignorance, like the Katie Couric interview with Carmen Carrera and Laverne Cox, where Katie just couldn’t keep her mind off what genitalia the women currently have. Piers Morgan had that trouble as well with author Janet Mock. In this clip, Stephen Colbert examines media ignorance on these subjects in his trademark fashion, saying, “it’s not enough to treat transgender people like women. Now we have to treat them like human beings.”

Imagine that. He also has a few choice words for Optimus Prime.

Following that segment, Stephen welcomed trans author Janet Mock to dig deeper into the issue. What I love about this exchange is that the issues are handled with humor. So much of people learning to understand each other can be accomplished when we allow ourselves to laugh with each other. Indeed, that was Janet’s reaction to her experience on Colbert:

And here’s Janet’s interview: