Fresh after Kim and Khloe Kardashian (along with Kanye West and North West) visited Armenia to highlight the 100 year anniversary of the genocide in the country, the Kardashian-Jenners have again showed their use for greater causes. This time it’s by Bruce Jenner coming out as trans.
The former Olympian athlete told Diane Sawyer in a special interview – watched by 17 million people in the US alone: ‘For all intents and purposes, I’m a woman’
Bruce added: ‘People look at me differently. They see you as this macho male, but my heart and my soul and everything that I do in life -- it is part of me.’
‘That female side is part of me. That’s who I am.’
The interview’s forty minutes long and could change how trans people are perceived and furthermore treated forever, but let’s get Bruce’s friend and one of our favourite Orange Is The New Black actresses/activists, Laverne Cox, to sum it up:
And here are all your burning questions, answered:
Is Bruce a ‘he’ or a ‘she’?
Bruce used male pronouns (he/his/him) for the most part of the interview, e.g.:
‘I look at it this way—Bruce always telling a lie. He’s lived a lie his whole life about who he is. And I can’t do that any longer.’
But also referred to themselves as ‘she’. The safest bet? We'll start using ‘they’ and ‘Jenner’ like Laverne Cox did. At least until Jenner's new name is revealed.
Is Jenner going to have a sex change?
Bruce said ‘as of now I have all the male parts’ but that could change, though he’s in no rush: ‘I'm 65, it's not like I want to go out and have it off all the time.’
Just FYI, this issue is different for every trans person and imagine having to explain your medical/identity history to every person you met. We can ask this of someone in Jenner's position because they want to go on the record to talk about this to bring attention to it, but be wary when talking about/to other trans people. They're not spokespeople, they're just people.
Does this mean Jenner is gay?
No, and Jenner is not a lesbian either, in fact, they’re ‘asexual’ They then said: ‘Sexuality is who you personally are attracted to — who turns you on — male or female. But gender identity has to do with who you are as a person and your soul, and who you identify with inside, OK?’
How long has Jenner known they're trans?
‘I have always been confused by my gender identity ,’ they said, but beyond wearing dresses, he first decided to change the outside in the 1980s, nearly transitioning then. He also had a nose job which resulted in him looking more feminine and electrolysis to remove his facial and chest hair.
Has living in a man’s body upset Jenner?
Yes – Jenner even felt suicidal and one point: ‘I thought wouldn't the easiest thing right now ... just go in the room, get a gun, boom. Pain's over, it's done, go to a How did Jenner feel about appearing on Keeping Up With The Kardashians when he was going through this?
‘I had the story. We've done 425 episodes over eight years now, and the entire run I thought, Oh my god. This whole thing, the one true story in the family was the one I was hiding. The one thing that could really make a difference in people's lives was in my soul, and I couldn't tell that story.’
How do the Kardashian-Jenners feel about Jenner?
Kim
The 'most supportive', saying to Jenner: ‘Girl, you gotta rock it baby. You gotta look good! If you’re doing this thing, I’m helping you. You’re representing the family. You gotta look really good,’
Kourtney
Khloe
‘She’s had a lot of losses in her life’, like the death of her father and her divorce from Lamar Odom. ‘She feels likes there’s this massive… “my whole life is falling apart,” you know, “it’s my dad,” and I try to explain… “but I’m not going anywhere. I’m still going to be there for you.”’
Kylie and Kendall
They found out because Kendall was literally spying on Kylie to see if she was stealing her clothes. No, Jenner didn’t steal Kendall’s clothes, but they wanted to try them on in front of the best full-length mirror in the house – Kendall’s (she is the second tallest of the Kardashian-Jenners, after all).: ‘Any time someone walked in the room, the camera turned on because Kendall thought Kylie was stealing clothes from her: ‘They came home and turned on their computer and [went], "Oh my God”’
After the surprise?
Brandon, Brody and Cassandra (the lesser-known siblings from his first marriage)
All very supportive. Brandon said: ‘I feel like I’m getting an upgraded version of my dad. Brody said: ‘The first thing I thought was just like, “It finally makes sense”’ and Cassandra said that while she was upset at first, they had a chat and: ‘I just held his hand and I cried with him and I just told him how proud of him I was and how inspired I was.’
Anyone else have anything interesting to say?
Kanye West - influential in Kimberly’s support of her stepfather, as Jenner explained: ‘He says to Kim, ‘Look, I can be married to the most beautiful woman in the world, and I am. I can have the most beautiful little daughter in the world, and I have that. But I’m nothing if I can’t be me. If I can’t be true to myself, they don’t mean anything.’
‘Since then, Kimberly has been, by far, the most accepting, and the easiest to talk to about it.’
Yet, sadly, as much as there were people who support Jenner’s right – and decision – to publically self-identify as they wish, there were people who wanted to the declaration to show how bigoted and/or stupid they are.
First up was Kris Humphries, the one who was married to Kim for 72 days, who tweeted this:
He later apologised:
But there’s no explanation of why he was so happy to escape the Kardashian-Jenners…
Secondly there was Perez Hilton, who wanted to stir up controversy between the Kardashian-Jenners where there was none. We really like Kris’s reply.
Oh, and for the record, Jenner’s other ex-wives have been very supportive, too, with Chrystie Scott saying the interview was ‘cathartic’ and Linda Thompson said in an essay: ‘He can finally realise his need to be who he authentically is, who he was born to be. That takes tremendous courage. For that I commend him.’
Want to know more about Jenner’s transition? Good, because there’s going to be an 8-part series that will hopefully teach people that being trans is something that is normal and happens, but doesn’t always fit into other people’s expectations. And if you're still wondering why Jenner came out publicly? Well, you've read this far, haven't you...?
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.