After months of speculations, reality TV star confirms he’s a woman “for all intents and purposes.”

by Ashley Canino

In the first few moments of his interview with Diane Sawyer, Bruce Jenner confirmed the rumors tabloids have been publishing for months: Jenner is transitioning into a woman. The special episode of “20/20,” which aired Friday night, made quick work of confirming Jenner’s transition and moved on to exploring the topic of gender identity through the lens of his particular experience.

“Bruce Jenner is…”

When prompted to define himself, Jenner immediately addressed his confusion over gender identity, but asserted that he is just who he is, not a different female person stuck in a male body. “For all intents and purposes, I am a woman,” he confirmed after shaking out his ponytail, a symbolic restraint on his public identity.

“I’ve been apologizing for my entire life.”

Jenner reports beginning his transition a he approached his fortieth birthday in the 1980s. He took female hormones for almost five years, and electrolysis to remove his facial hair. During this period, he shared his feelings with his older sister. Their conversation would not resurface for another thirty years. By the time of the taping, she’d yet to see Bruce as his unnamed, female identity. Jenner also noted that he had shared with each of his wives his gender identity struggle, but to varying degrees.

“Sexuality was totally different than what my issues were.”

Though Sawyer seemed confused in her line of questioning on the matter, Jenner was clear that his sexuality and sexual orientation are different matters than his gender identity. He shared that he has always been sexually attracted to women, and even mused that if his most recent ex-wife, Kris Jenner, had been more open to his transition that they would probably still be together.

The special aimed to call out similar delineations between gender identity and other concepts that are often conflated with it. Cross-dressing, for instance, was noted as not being evidence of gender confusion.

“Gender identity is who you are as a person, and your soul, and who you are inside.”

While Jenner is not the first famous athlete to reveal that he is transitioning or transgender, he is the most prolific. He addressed the “macho male” persona that people have perceived for him since his gold-medal winning performance in the 1976 Olympic decathlon. From that time on, he became a symbol of American masculinity, covering the Wheaties cereal box in 1978. He asked Sawyer to maintain a sense of humor about the irony that his ultra-masculine persona be underpinned with his true female gender identity.

On “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” Jenner is often seen buying gadgets, racing cars, and playing with toy helicopters. He confirmed in the interview that his interests won’t change because he is transitioning to a woman. Despite cultural alignment of certain activities and interests with one gender or another — boundaries that are hopefully less entrenched now than they were decades ago — Jenner appeared to feel that it is obvious that what he enjoys as a human being wouldn’t change because of a change in the gender with which he identifies. He remarked that he hadn’t considered that he was a “tomboy,” until step-daughter Kim Kardashian suggested it — further evidence that he isn’t interpreting activities as belonging to one gender or another, even while closely examining his gender identity.

“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.”

Jenner scoffed repeatedly at the notion that his announcing his transition was a publicity stunt for “Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” which has aired over 400 episodes, a lucrative brand of which he is inextricably a part.

The reality show gave Jenner a huge platform, but also put him under mass scrutiny. He seemed regretful, in the interview, of not having used the platform sooner to speak out on his transition, but is ambivalent toward being a figurehead. After stating that he is not “a spokesman for the community,” he later remarks, “I would like to think that we could save some lives here.” He also addressed the hate crimes that plague transgender people, noting that these crimes disproportionately affect black transgender women.

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

He put off sharing the name he will assume when he transitions, citing the media flare up that would follow. He intends to have facial and breast surgery. Though he has not decided whether he will have sexual reassignment surgery, he has obtained the necessary references and is adamant that he would do so only with extreme privacy. He ends on an extraordinarily positive note, especially considering his remark that after the media got wind of his laryngeal shave he considered suicide.

“If this is the only problem I have in life, I’ve got it made,” he said. “If it’s only this, I’ll be OK.”

Fellow celebrities, athletes, fans and members of the transgender community are speaking out on social media about Bruce’s transition. While some of the conversation has been positive, the special has also generated comments ranging from insensitive remarks to outright backlash.

Sawyer stated during the special that Jenner preferred that ABC use male pronouns in the interview, so this piece has also utilized male pronouns. For more information on pronoun usage, please visit GLAAD’s media reference guide: http://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender.

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Ashley Canino is a freelance writer and media researcher living in New York. You can find more of her work at AshleyCanino.com and follow her @AshleyCanino.

 Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons: “Bruce Jenner greets Gerald Ford and William Tolbert in 1976.”