Jenner said on Wednesday that she planned to use the attention that had
come with her public transition to being a woman to push for acceptance
of transgender people across the world. In an acceptance speech for the Arthur Ashe Courage Award
at the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles, she urged fellow athletes to make
her cause theirs as well, for the benefit of young people who face
discrimination, bullying and violence because of their identities. “I’m
clear with my responsibility in going forward: to tell my story the
right way, for me; to keep learning; to do whatever I can to reshape the
landscape of
how trans issues are viewed, how trans people are treated;
and then more broadly, to promote a very simple idea — accepting people
for who they are,” she said. Ms.
Jenner, 65, was first known to the world as Bruce Jenner, who turned a
1976 Olympic decathlon gold medal into decades in the public spotlight
and appearances on cereal boxes, the cover of Playgirl magazine and
reality television. But she said that in recent months, she had felt
more pressure than at any point in her life, including at the pinnacle
of Olympic competition. “I
trained hard, I competed hard, and for that people respected me,” she
said. “But this transition has been harder on me than anything I could
imagine, and that’s the case for so many others, besides me. For that
reason alone, trans people deserve something vital, they deserve your
respect.” She
said on Wednesday that while athletic prowess and fame had helped
inoculate her somewhat from abuse, that was not the case for many others
who deserved protection. “If
you want to call me names, make jokes, doubt my intentions, go ahead,
because the reality is, I can take it,” she said. “But for the thousands
of kids out there coming to terms with being true to who they are, they
shouldn’t have to take it.” Ms. Jenner’s transition has received intense public interest, from a television special with Diane Sawyer on ABC in April that received nearly 17 million viewers to the July cover of Vanity Fair, which featured an image of her in a corset shot by Annie Leibovitz with the headline “Call Me Caitlyn.” She
noted one other burden that came with the process, the weight of being
judged on outfits such as the white dress she wore for the ceremony.
“O.K., girls, I get it,” Ms. Jenner said. “You got to get the shoes, the
hair, the makeup, the whole process, it was exhausting. And next, the
fashion police. Please be kind on me, I’m new at this.”
