Trans* issues are issues that much of society has a difficult time coming to terms with and understanding. Trans* people experience incomprehensible amounts of discrimination, hate, and alienation, and violence. With that being said, Bruce Jenner, an extremely well known Olympic champion, reality TV star, and celebrity, his coming out as transgender has the country opening their eyes to those who identify (and don’t) as trans* and the issues they inevitably deal with.
During Bruce’s recent interview with Diane Sawyer, he explains the experience of transition and what it’s like to be transgender. He shed light and opened the eyes of millions of Americans to trans-issues and what it means to be trans*. Bruce stated in the interview that for now, he identifies still with male pronouns. Bruce has made history, and kicked off the change that transgender people so desperately need.
Here are 10 of some of the most powerful quotes from the interview:
1.) “For all intents and purposes, I’m a woman,” Jenner said. “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.”
2.) “What I’m doing is going to do some good, and we’re going to change the world. If the whole Kardashian show and reality television gave me that foothold in that world to go out there and do something good, I’m all for it, I’ve got no problem with that.”
3.) “I look at guys and I’m like, ‘He’s comfortable in his own skin, wouldn’t it be a nice way to go through life.’ But me, I’m stuck here in the middle, I’ve got nowhere to go, which way do I go?”
4.) “Those are the only ones I’m concerned with…I can’t let myself hurt them,” Bruce said. “How do I do this? How do I do this and not hurt my children?”
5.) “I look at women all the time and think how lucky are they that they can wake in the morning and be themselves.”
6.) “I just can’t hold the curtain any longer. Bruce lives a lie. She [Bruce’s female identity] is not a lie. I can’t do it anymore.”
7.) “I would like to work with this community to get this message out. They know a lot more than I know. I am not a spokesman for this community. I believe we can save some lives here.” [Bruce on violence and suicide rates that transgender women face.]
8.) “You can’t take two aspirin and get plenty of sleep and you’ll be just fine. It doesn’t work like that.”
9.) “We had done 425 episodes I think, over almost eight years, and 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.”
10.) “I’m saying goodbye to people’s perception of me and who I am. But I’m not saying goodbye to me. This has always been me. [When you think of me], please be open-minded. I’m not this bad person. I’m just doing what I have to do.”
You can watch the full interview.