Okay, so I guess by now, unless you have just emerged from living under a rock for the last few months, that everyone has heard the big news about Bruce Jenner. During an interview special with Diane Sawyer, the Olympic athlete and father of six revealed that he is transgender. To many, this was a huge shock, but others claimed that they saw it coming. Either way, this news has sparked up conversations about how we approach the transgender subject.
There are currently no definite statistics on the population of transgender people in the UK, as our Census does not ask us to identify ourselves in that way. However, the Equality Human Rights website estimates that there could be between 300,000-500,000 transgender people living in the UK.
So what does ‘transgender’ mean? In Bruce’s case, it means that although he was born in a male body, he was always confused with his gender identity. He claims that God gave him all of his amazing qualities that allowed him to achieve great things in his life, but needed to give him something to “deal with”, so he gave Bruce the soul of a woman. When looking at a picture of himself from the 1976 Olympics, he tells Diane that he sees himself, Bruce, but also sees “Her”.
“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. My brain is much more female than it is male. It’s hard for people to understand that, but that’s what my soul is.”
Okay, so if Bruce has a woman’s soul…is he gay? – I hear you asking this loud and clear, I’ll admit that I was the same. But being transgender actually has nothing to do with your sexuality, “it’s apples and oranges”, as Bruce said. During the programme the difference between gender and sexuality was laid out in a pretty neat way: “Sexuality is about whom you go to bed with. Gender is about who you go to bed as.”
The transgender subject could be said to be a little daunting to some people, especially when they don’t know much about it. Some people assume that cross-dressers are transgender, but this is not always the case; many cross-dressers have no desire to make physical changes to their bodies and are very comfortable in their gender. Despite this, one thing that I did learn from the Bruce Jenner interview is that the best thing to do when unsure is to just ask and do a little research yourself, because everyone is different and I think that it’s very important to realise this.
In today’s society, transgender people are finally starting to be able to shine under spotlights. Laverne Cox, whom most of us will know from the AMAZING hot TV show ‘Orange is the New Black’, has become one of the main faces of the transgender movement. She was featured on the cover of Time Magazine (a first for the magazine), with the caption “The Transgender Tipping Point: America’s Next Civil Rights Frontier”. This was really exciting, as Laverne has won several awards for her work as the first transgendered black woman to have a leading role on a TV show, giving her a huge platform to speak from. Laverne hopes to spread awareness of the troubles that transgender people face every single day and hopes that tolerance and understanding will start to take precedence over discrimination.
The problems that transgender people face were also brought up during the interview with Bruce Jenner. Of course, as one of the most famous men on popular reality television, Bruce faced awful torment from the media, paparazzi, talk show hosts and especially from comedians about his changing looks and obvious identity crisis though often unintentionally as the world was unaware of the issues he was dealing with under the surface. Bruce even said that he considered suicide at one point because the pressure and ridicule was becoming too intense. But, like many of us, he wants to see “how the story ends” and this is what pushed him through those dark days. But suicidal thoughts are not uncommon for transgender people. According to The Guardian “48% of trans people under 26 said they had attempted suicide, and 30% said they had done so in the past year, while 59% said they had at least considered doing so.” The interview also covered murder rates in the US (which was terrifying) and showed clips from videos of transgender people being attacked and abused. These, despite the fact that they were just snippets of longer videos, were very difficult videos to watch, especially when knowing why it was happening. It is these horrific crimes and reactions that Bruce hopes to change through his coming out and hopefully spur on a positive change in the way the community see and treat transgender people. During the interview he said that he realised that people think that their family TV show ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ is cheap and attention seeking and people even thought that his coming out was a publicity stunt! However he hoped that going public would aid further understanding of the lives of transgender people through the family’s prevalence in society and especially the younger generation:
“What I’m doing is going to do some good. And we’re going to change the world.”
Say what you will about the Kardashian/Jenner clan, but it cannot be denied that they are a family that can fully support and embrace diversity, especially when it comes to their family. Wonderfully, all of Bruce’s children and ex-wives are supportive of his decision and want him to be as happy as he can be. And if their show provides a platform for positive contribution to the transgender movement, then we are totally okay with that.
Like many LGBT subjects, it can be difficult to approach discussion, but if our world could become at least more aware and understanding, that would be huge. Unfortunately, we still live in cultures that do not see LGBT people as fully accepted, and it’s time that changed. The more we talk about the issue and through the more we learn we are taking just the first, very important, steps.
During and after the interview, waves of positive messages were posted over Instagram and Twitter in support of Bruce, from his family and other famous faces:
Isn’t it ironic that the whole time we’ve been watching Kim get married multiple times and witness the tragedies of losing earrings and sibling rivalries; Bruce had the most important story to tell! Here at HC Aberdeen, we applaud Bruce’s bravery and encourage love and tolerance to everyone, no matter how they choose to portray their identity. We love you Bruce, and we cannot wait to see what “She” will look like: probably just as beautiful as the rest of your family. And we hope that any of you who may think you have a similar story to tell, one day live in a world where you feel confident enough to tell it.
To learn a bit more about transgender and the movement in Scotland or get some advice you can go to www.scottishtrans.org.