Gender and sexuality

Smith: Jenner interview serves as educational opportunity on trans* issues

“For all intents and purposes, I am a woman,” Bruce Jenner told Diane Sawyer in a special two-hour edition of the ABC News show 20/20 Friday. After years of feeling that he was living a lie and the media were relentlessly hounding him, he is now at peace with his soul.

We can take away a lesson from Jenner that is all too often forgotten: tolerance. Understanding the complexities of gender and sexuality have come a long way, and we must progress with transgender people who are so daring and bold to come forward. Jenner and the transgender community do not have to explain themselves to the public, but Jenner chose to do so in order to make acceptance easier for the next generation of transgender people.

Currently, prejudice and violence against the LGBT community is alarming. The murder rate for the LGBT community is higher than ever, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, and this can be eradicated if Americans practice tolerance.

After months of the media speculating over every detail of the Olympic athlete and reality star’s body, including his nails, breasts, throat and clothing, Jenner used the media attention to cast light on the otherwise silenced topic of being transgender. In the interview, Jenner went back and forth using the pronouns him and her, explaining how he is transitioning into a woman.

Pronouns are especially important to the transgender community, and in Jenner’s case, he referred to himself as he, so the media should continue to use this pronoun until he says otherwise.



For Jenner, this is simply him telling the truth and washing away the confusion. “I’m me, I’m a person and this is who I am. I’m not stuck in anybody’s body,” Jenner told Sawyer.

This concept seems to confuse most — regardless of age or political views. Far too often the phrase “weird” is used to describe Jenner and transgender people. Society must challenge itself and push past describing transgender people and their transitions as weird. It is also important that society does not take Jenner’s story and apply it to all transgender people. Every transgender person has his or her own story to tell.

Sexuality and gender identity are separate and we must see them that way. Sexuality, or who we go to bed with, is different from gender identity, or who we are in our soul. For Jenner, he identifies as a heterosexual woman, interested in women. This can be confusing at first, but it is his truth. Society must challenge itself to see beyond the boxes that we often put people in and realize our identities are far more complex than expected.

Instead of taking photos of Jenner’s every outfit, nail polish color and hairstyle, like so many magazines have stooped to, they should use Jenner’s spotlight as a time to educate people.

If more people can hear stories like Jenner’s and understand that it is not a choice, it is not a biological problem and it is most certainly not weird, society can move toward transgender equality. The next step is starting these conversations at home, not just in the media.

And equality should be seen as a bigger issue than ever before. Now is the time for political change, and for stories like Jenner’s to be accepted. Society must explore other identities and come to an understanding that there is more than meets the eye.

Julia Smith is a junior newspaper and online journalism and sociology dual major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @jcsmith711.





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