Bruce Jenner, Embracing Transgender Identity, Says 'It's Just Who I Am' - New York Times

Photo

Bruce Jenner sat down with ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer for a two-hour interview that aired on Friday. Credit ABC News, via Reuters

This was shocking: Bruce Jenner is a Republican.

That revelation on Friday night actually was a little surprising, given that the G.O.P. is not known for embracing transgender equality. But otherwise, there wasn’t much suspense to what Mr. Jenner told Diane Sawyer in his long-awaited television interview with ABC News – it has been pretty clear for some time that he identifies as a woman and has begun the transitioning process.

The doubts were not about that, but about his credibility as a champion of the transgender cause. Mr. Jenner has been such a standout in the transactional exhibitionism that is reality television that there was a risk that the coming out would seem as crass and contrived as an episode of “Keeping Up with The Kardashians.”

Continue reading the main story

Related Coverage

• 

  Bruce Jenner Says He’s Transitioning to a WomanAPRIL 24, 2015

That didn’t happen. Mr. Jenner explained himself well, with passion and dignity. His emotion (he was teary at times) seemed genuine and quite touching. He told Ms. Sawyer to call him Bruce and refer to him as he, saying this was his last interview as a man. He didn’t say what his name would be in future encounters, and referred to his inner self as “her.”

Mr. Jenner didn’t explain everything. This wasn’t a confrontational interview or even a probing one: it was a careful, collaborative effort between Ms. Sawyer and her guest to turn a celebrity get into a public service announcement.

With the aid of experts and clips, ABC threaded Mr. Jenner’s story with information about the transgender world, marking signs of acceptance (a Time Magazine cover and the award-winning Amazon series “Transparent”) and also the vestigial stigmas that lead some people to depression, isolation, and even suicide. ABC provided profiles of Christine Jorgensen and the tennis player Renee Richards.

“I’m not stuck in anybody’s body, it’s just who I am as a human being,” Mr. Jenner said. “My brain is much more female than it is male.” And while he showed Ms. Sawyer a black cocktail dress he would wear to a private dinner the two had planned, he didn’t allow himself to be filmed in women’s clothes — and that was the right call. Mr. Jenner explained that his femininity isn’t located in his sexuality or appearance, but in his soul. There was no need to give paparazzi a tabloid shot of his new physique.

He rather sweetly said that for now, his aspirations for his newfound freedom are modest. He said he wanted to “be able to have my nail polish on long enough that it actually chips off.”

This was a coming-out about gender identity and also of television genre. Mr. Jenner tried to disentangle himself from his reality show skin, shedding the slightly goofy, Father Knows Least persona he plays on E! to reveal a more forceful and assertive version of himself. He became exercised – and even sarcastic — when Ms. Sawyer told him that his Kardashian years (she only referred to the series as “that reality show”) made people wonder whether this too was a publicity stunt. “Yeah, right,” he drawled.

Instead, he reframed his reality show career as the price he paid to create a platform for his new calling. “Yeah, I know, he said, referring to what Ms. Sawyer described as “a shameless selling of everything.” He said this was different. “But what I am doing is going to do some good and we’re going to change the world. I really firmly believe that,” he said shaking his finger at Ms. Sawyer. He added, “And if the whole Kardashian show and reality television gave me that foothold into that world, to be able to go out there and really do something good, I’m all for it. I got no problem with that. Understand?”

His reality show days aren’t over, however. Mr. Jenner said he was doing an eight-episode documentary with E! that will air this summer but said he drew the line at giving the camera the kind of access he allowed on “Keeping Up with The Kardashians.” Whatever further medical procedures he will undergo, he will do privately, without a film crew. I’m not shooting any of this, I’m not filming anything,” he said. “To me it’s very degrading.”

Mr. Jenner wasn’t always likable in the interview, but he seemed sincere. And much of what he said about having lived a lie made sense. Mr. Jenner, who was the star of the 1976 Olympics, explained that his obsessive determination to succeed as an athlete allowed him to block out everything else. As he put it, “I didn’t have to deal with me.”

Mr. Jenner described himself as conservative and Ms. Sawyer seemed taken aback. When she asked him if he would ask Republican leaders to champion the transgender cause, Mr. Jenner was full of aplomb. “I would do that, yeah, in a heartbeat, why not? And I think they’d be very receptive to it.”

His four children from his first two marriages participated in the interview to show their support – Brandon was especially kind, saying, “I feel like I’m getting an upgraded version of my Dad.”

Neither of his two daughters with Kris Kardashian nor his four famous stepdaughters appeared on the show, but he said they had all come around after the initial shock, especially Kim. (It wasn’t entirely a surprise to her: he said she had once caught him wearing a dress.)

He said his main concern about telling the truth was for his children, and that pain was evident. But he seemed surprisingly detached from how his ex-wives may have felt, including Ms. Kardashian. He said he had no complaints about her. Almost cavalierly, he added, “Honestly, if she would have been really good with it and understanding we’d probably still be together.”

In Hollywood, the line between bravery and brazen self-promotion can blur pretty easily. Mr. Jenner took a difficult step and made the best possible case for himself while serving the cause he says he will from now on make his life’s work.

“I am saying goodbye to people’s perception of me and who I am,” he said. “I’m not saying goodbye to me because this has always been me.”

Loading...

Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1Kg7wwy