Last night Bruce Jenner's two-hour interview with Diane Sawyer was aired on ABC, where he told millions of viewers: “For all intents and purposes, I am a woman.”
At the beginning of the interview Jenner said: “You know what? It's going to be tough. I’ve been thinking about this day forever and what I should do with my life. . .How do I tell my story? How do I tell people what I've been through?”
Bruce said during the interview: "I'm not stuck in anybody's body. My brain is much more female than male. 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."
“I’ve always been confused with my gender identity since I was this big,” he said. “I’ve tried to explain it to them this way. God’s looking down, making little Bruce, OK. He’s looking down, he says, OK, what are we going to do with this one? Make him a smart kid, very determined, God gave me all these wonderful qualities. And then at the end when he’s just finishing, he goes, wait a second. We’ve got to give him something. Everybody has stuff in their life they have to deal with. What are we going to give him? God looks down and chuckles a little bit and goes, let’s give him the soul of a female, and let’s see how he deals with that.”
Jenner told Diane to use the pronouns he and him during the interview and declined to reveal the name he may use, due to privacy. GLAAD has advised that until Bruce indicates a new name or pronoun, he should be referred to with his current name and pronoun.
On telling his children...
“They all cried, mainly because they don’t want anybody to hurt Dad,” Bruce said. Kim Kardashian was the "easiest to talk to about it," while Khloe struggled the most to come to terms with it.
He says that Kanye West said 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."
Speaking of Khloe, he said: "She's had a lot of losses in her life. She lost her father at a young age… and you know Lamar had his issues. She feels like there's this massive, 'My whole life's falling apart, it's my dad,' and I can't argue that point, but I'm not going anywhere. I'm still going to be there."
On Keeping Up With The Kardashians...
He said of filming Keeping Up With the Kardashians: "The entire run, I kept thinking to myself, 'Oh my god, this whole thing, the one real true story in the family, was the one I was hiding and nobody knew about it.' The one thing that could really make a difference in people's lives was right here in my soul, and I could not tell that story."
'No I am not gay'...
He said: “No, I am not gay. I am, as far as I know, heterosexual. I’ve never been with a guy. I’ve always been married, raising kids."
On his marriage to Kris Jenner...
He said of his marriage to Kris Jenner: “I loved Kris. I had a wonderful life with her. I learned a lot from her. That's what you like in a relationship — to be able to learn from the person you're with." He added: "Kris is a good woman. I've got no complaints with her. She's a good person. Honestly, if she had been really good with it and understanding of it, we'd probably still be together."
On taking hormones in the 80s...
He revealed that he began taking hormones in the 80s: "I had been on hormones for five years and I was a really solid 36B something and you really can't hide those things. And [Kris] goes, 'Well, OK, you like to wear women's clothes.' And I kind of downplayed it some. I feel in a lot of ways that when you love somebody you don't want to hurt them."
On gender reassignment surgery...
Bruce said: "There's no rush for that and I would do it so quietly nobody in the world would ever know. I'm not shooting any of this. I'm not filming anything. To me, it's very degrading. At this point, as far as the term SRS, sexual reassignment surgery, would be down the line."
Bruce's mother's touching statement...
His 90-year-old mother said: "I want you to be happy and I love you. I was very proud of you when you stood on that podium in Montreal. I never thought I could be more proud of you, but I'm learning I can be."
E! will be filming a documentary series...
The network said they will be filming a documentary series about Jenner. In the release it said: "at this time, Bruce Jenner is choosing not to live publicly in the media as a woman."
As the interview aired, GLAAD released a statementin support of the reality star. "Today, millions of people learned that someone they know is transgender. By sharing this story, Bruce Jenner has shined a light on what it means to be transgender and live authentically in the face of unimaginable public scrutiny. Though Jenner's journey is one that is deeply personal, it is also one that will impact and inspire countless people around the world," said GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.
Bruce said he would like to work with the transgender community. “I would like to work with this community to get this message out,” he told Diane. “This is my cause in life. This is why God put me on this earth — to deal with this issue.”
Jenner concluded: “I’m saying goodbye to people’s perception of me and who I am. I’m not saying goodbye to me. Because this has always been me.”
Watch clips from the interview here...
Editor's note: In a statement GLAAD advised that Bruce Jenner has not indicated a new name or pronoun should be used, so should be referred to by his current name and pronoun.*
[View the story "Bruce Jenner Interview Reaction" on Storify]