Janet Mock aims to shed 'trauma' associated with being transgender with new show

Janet Mock, a writer on the hit series “Pose,” said she hopes to tell uplifting stories that will help shed the "trauma" that is often associated with being transgender.

Mock, who said she's the first transgender woman of color hired as a writer on a television series in the U.S., believes “Pose” is a necessary part of American culture.

“Knowing that 26 trans people were murdered in the United States last year, almost all of them women of color, I thought it was important that we memorialize the people who we’ve learned so much from,” Mock said in an interview with Trevor Noah on Wednesday.

“Pose” made history as the first American TV series to feature more than 50 gay, lesbian and transgender characters, but it’s also the first show to ever center around transgender characters, according to Mock.

“On our show we center [the trans] experience and we don’t show the origin of our characters. We show them as just full-bodied trans people living in New York City,” Mock said. “With that, you show that transfolk are not a monolith, that we don’t all have the same dreams and desires, that we read and shade one another and that we can be villains as well as protagonists.”

The show received rave reviews when it premiered on FX in the spring, but Mock says she's less worried about how it's perceived than showing trans people that their lives are important.

“It showed me that I can be centered and that I deserve to be seen and heard,” she added.