Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
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| PIERS MORGAN JANET MOCK |
CNN host Piers Morgan has landed in trouble from advocates of the transgender community for referring to trans woman and writer Janet Mock as "formerly a man." Mock says she was simply "born a baby" and discovered her "girlhood" and "womanhood" as she grew.
Mock first appeared on a segment of Piers Morgan Live on Tuesday evening titled "From Boy to Girl" where she discussed her life and promoted her new book, Redefining Realness.
The trans woman said she took offense to Morgan referring to her as formerly a man during the show, but waited until it was over before raising concerns about it on Twitter.
"@PiersMorganLive I was not 'formerly a man.' Pls stop sensationalizing my life and misgendering trans women. #redefiningrealness," she tweeted Tuesday after the interview aired on CNN.
The outcry resulted in Morgan inviting her back to his show on Wednesday to explain why he was being "vilified" when he had nothing but praise for her during the interview.
"Why have I been vilified for being transparently supportive of you. I don't get it," asked Morgan in the follow-up interview. "Before commercial break we were having a lovely conversation when all of a sudden you said, 'who was formerly a man.' I was a baby. I was assigned male gender because of the appearance of my genitals. As I grew up, I discovered my girlhood. I discovered my womanhood and I proclaimed and defined myself for myself as Audre Lorde said," she continued.
She said she didn't correct him during the show on Tuesday because she was scared and wanted to be a "cordial guest."
Despite the praise for Mock from her supporters, many others felt she was being overly dramatic about the interview while others refused the idea that she is a woman, despite the way she looks or however she wants to define herself.
"He was and still is a man because he has the XY chromosomes. It's a biological FACT! Having hormone injections and a mutilated penis does not make him a woman. Although I wouldn't have guessed he is a dude from this video," wrote Charles Drumley in a video of the interview posted to YouTube.
Alex Skyson, another commenter wrote, "I think Piers is despicable, but I did watch the original interview and I thought he literally drowned her in praise and completely lionized her and was overly supportive. I don't understand what her problem is? It's like we need a rule book on what words and phrases we can use around trans people."
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