Bruce Jenner interview: 'Yes, for all intents and purposes, I'm a woman'.

[Calllaris]

Link: http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/24/media/bruce-jenner-interview-diane-sawyer/index.html?Sr=twmoney042515bruce0930story

 

Bruce Jenner, who has spent his entire adult life in the public spotlight, has secretly spent his entire life as a woman. Now the secret is out.

 

"Yes, for all intents and purposes, I'm a woman," Jenner told Diane Sawyer in an interview televised on ABC on Friday night.

 

Jenner said he has the "soul of a female" and told Sawyer "my brain is much more female than it is male," even though "as of now I have all the male parts." Jenner dreams as a woman.

 

"I've been thinking about this day forever," Jenner told Sawyer, describing in emotional terms how male gender identity was a lie. But "she is not a lie," Jenner said.

 

Jenner expressed optimism that "what I'm doing is going to do some good" and talked about becoming involved in transgender activism.

 

Support for Jenner seemed to dominate social media conversations as the TV special aired. .  

The in-depth discussion of being transgender was immediately heralded as a historic moment for societal understanding of gender identity and expression.

 

"Bruce Jenner is a beautiful, brave human being," Ellen DeGeneres wrote on Twitter. "Sending him lots of love. He's saving lives and opening minds tonight.".

 

Advocates for the transgender community -- some of whom had prepared weeks ahead of time -- thanked Jenner for mainstreaming something that remains mysterious to many.

 

"Today, millions of people learned that someone they know is transgender," GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. She said Jenner's story "will impact and inspire countless people around the world."

 

On social networking sites, viewers called the ABC program riveting, if not necessarily surprising, and called Jenner brave.

 

While the special was airing, the E! cable channel announced a long-rumored documentary series about Jenner's transition. The 8-episode series will debut in late July.

 

Both ABC and E! said that Jenner has, for now, indicated a preference to be called "Bruce" by the press and as "he," with male pronoun's instead of female.

 

'I'm not stuck in anybody's body': Speculation about Jenner in the entertainment media had made Friday's comments widely expected.

Speaking of himself in the third person, the 65-year-old Jenner told Sawyer: "Bruce Jenner has always been confused with my gender identity.".

 

"I'm me. ... I'm a person. I'm not stuck in anybody's body.".

 

Jenner then loosened his hair, pulling it out of a pony tail.

 

As far as sexuality is concerned, Jenner told Sawyer he's not gay.

 

"I've never been with a guy," Jenner said. "There's two different things here. Sexuality is who you are personally attracted to. .... But gender identity is who you are in your soul.".

 

In the interview, Jenner said he initially started to transition in the 1980s with the use of female hormones. "I did it almost five years," Jenner said.

 

Jenner also at one point contemplated suicide.

 

Jenner told Sawyer that after the paparazzi followed him to a doctor's appointment where he was receiving a tracheal shave -- a procedure that reduces the size of the Adam's Apple -- he considered killing himself.

 

"I thought wouldn't the easiest thing right now ... just go in the room, get a gun, boom. Pain's over, it's done, go to a better place," Jenner told Sawyer.

 

However, Jenner reconsidered, saying he wanted to know how his story ends.

 

'The one real true story ... was the one I was hiding': The interview addressed Jenner's role on the massively popular E! reality show, "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," the show built around the blended Kardashian-Jenner family.

Jenner said that the real story on the show was within.

 

"I had the story," Jenner said. "We've done 420 episodes, I think, and the entire run I kept thinking to myself ... the one real true story in the family was the one I was hiding."

 

"The one thing that could really make a difference in people's lives was in my soul, and I couldn't say anything," Jenner continued.

 

During the special, Sawyer said that ABC sought comment from Jenner's third wife, Kris Jenner, but that Kris declined. The couple recently divorced.

 

Kris seemingly denied this in a tweet to Perez Hilton: "No one asked me to comment .... and I'm sitting with Bruce now watching this show so let's keep it real..."

 

An ABC News spokesman responded: "ABC sent an email to her publicity team more than once. They called and said no comment."

 

After the interview, many in the Kardashian family expressed their love for Jenner.

 

"Couldn't be a more proud daughter," Kourtney Kardashian tweeted. "I am honored to stand by Bruce's side and support him."

 

The sentiment was also shared by Kourtney's sister, Khloe.

 

"Just finished watching #BruceJennerInterview with the family," Khloe said on Twitter. "Dads really are heros [sic]."

 

Sawyer also received high praise from social media for conducting the interview with an educational tone and proper respect toward the transgender community.

 

"This is what responsible reporting on transgender lives looks like --thorough while kind, deep yet patient," Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said after the interview aired.

 

In the run up, ABC worked to stoke interest in the interview. It had revealed little about its contents ahead of its air time. The special was called "Bruce Jenner: The Interview" -- a title that gave nothing away. In short preview clips, Jenner has said things like "My whole life has been getting me ready for this.".

 

The interview sessions with Jenner were taped in February. Within ABC, they were tightly guarded: For example, the small group of staffers who worked on the special were not allowed to take scripts home for the evening.

[dequeen]

Bruce is confused. This is old life crisis. I have no support whatever to offer him, I rather feel sorry for the confusion he has thrown his family into. Kendall and Kylie are obviously taking it hard pretending by dressing as sluts all over the place. Kris now acting like a teenager and getting that boy toy of a guy who seems gay anyway. And mason, Penelope, north, reign, will he be grandpa or ma? Just selfish.

[Iris]

Really dequeen?

[dequeen]

Yes @Iris. Really.

[Iris]

I don't think you know him well enough to say...

[M2DD]

I won't say he's confused, I just think it's stupid to change your sex, I still do not understand the motive behind changing your sex . For Christ sake , if God creates you a woman , stay a woman , if he creates you a man , stay a man , God is not stupid , he's God , wiser than you , don't go changing your sex. I see all transgenders as stupid people or should I say mad. Bruce Jenner anyway is stupid , really stupid. My opinion though

[Suavity]

I think is really old age madness

[Hawken]

See, i wont pretend to understand how the whole trans thing works. Heck, i dont even entirely understand homosexuality. However, one would expect comments like these from a straight homophobe not from lesbians. Your comments are very judgemental and snobbish (no offense). We will not advance as a community if we do not learn to live and let live. We have to learn to tolerate and ultimately respect other peoples decisions mostly when it is one as personal as this. Spewing your judgement and disdain all over the place isn't helping nor changing anything. Imagine if you finally came out and this is all the reaction you got? How would you feel?

Majority of us are here looking for love and friendship in secret because we are afraid of the backlash we would undoubtedly get from society (friends and family included) if we came out and told the world "this is who I am. This is what makes me happy". And yet you sit behind your keyboards and malign another human being just because he is brave enough to do something you can't or won't? Please.

[Milad]

I knew someone who was trans. Male to Female actually. At first I didnt even know she used to be a man. After becoming friends she let out the truth. We never really know whats going on with other people. Imagine feeling like you're trapped in a body you dont recognize as self? Certainly, being attracted to other women you know what its like to be different and the possibility of people to different feelings. I remember when I first couldnt understand I asked her why she didnt stay a man since she was already attracted to women and it would be much easier for her as a man. She told me because it was like looking in the mirror and never seeing yourself truly how you see yourself in your mind.

 

I think Bruce has made enough sacrifices for his family and for a long time. She deserves some happiness in this world and I hope she finds it.

[daftpunk]

Sooo will Bruce be a lesbian or was Kris a lesbian cos I find it hard to believe she didn't know he was playing dress up all this years.Anyway his face looks cute as a woman,good thing he has enuff money to make his dreams come thru. For those of you lesbians that can't stand transgenders remember it's the same way straight people can't stand you. You don't have to accept anyone's lifestyle, all you have to do is respect it

[Calllaris]

Sooo will Bruce be a lesbian or was Kris a lesbian cos I find it hard to believe she didn't know he was playing dress up all this years.Anyway his face looks cute as a woman,good thing he has enuff money to make his dreams come thru. For those of you lesbians that can't stand transgenders remember it's the same way straight people can't stand you. You don't have to accept anyone's lifestyle, all you have to do is respect it

 

No, Bruce will just be a trans-woman or a transgender woman , not a lesbian. If he decides to go under the knife; sex change, he will be a transsexual woman, generally "trans woman" or simply "woman", if he is through with "transitioning".

 

He also said he is not gay. "I've never been with a guy," Jenner said. "There's two different things here. Sexuality is who you are personally attracted to. .... But gender identity is who you are in your soul.".

 

I wonder if he is still in transition?

[Calllaris]

I knew someone who was trans. Male to Female actually. At first I didnt even know she used to be a man. After becoming friends she let out the truth. We never really know whats going on with other people. Imagine feeling like you're trapped in a body you dont recognize as self? Certainly, being attracted to other women you know what its like to be different and the possibility of people to different feelings. I remember when I first couldnt understand I asked her why she didnt stay a man since she was already attracted to women and it would be much easier for her as a man. She told me because it was like looking in the mirror and never seeing yourself truly how you see yourself in your mind.

 

I think Bruce has made enough sacrifices for his family and for a long time. She deserves some happiness in this world and I hope she finds it.

 

That's very tolerant, yet Bruce still wants to be refered to as "he"!

 

"Both ABC and E! said that Jenner has, for now, indicated a preference to be called "Bruce" by the press and as "he," with male pronoun's instead of female"

[Milad]

Ok cool he

[Iris]

Bruce Jenner becomes a woman absolutely. Says..."Call me Caitlyn".

[Fummy]

Bruce is confused. This is old life crisis. I have no support whatever to offer him, I rather feel sorry for the confusion he has thrown his family into. Kendall and Kylie are obviously taking it hard pretending by dressing as sluts all over the place. Kris now acting like a teenager and getting that boy toy of a guy who seems gay anyway. And mason, Penelope, north, reign, will he be grandpa or ma? Just selfish.

Are you serious? If this is selfish then we are all selfish for daring to love other women as women . He said he has been like this all his life, I think what he is doing is very brave . He isn't disturbing anybody by being a woman, it doesn't really change anything as long as he is still the same person inside . His children dressing like sluts? Lol now that's funny.

[Fummy]

I won't say he's confused, I just think it's stupid to change your sex, I still do not understand the motive behind changing your sex . For Christ sake , if God creates you a woman , stay a woman , if he creates you a man , stay a man , God is not stupid , he's God , wiser than you , don't go changing your sex. I see all transgenders as stupid people or should I say mad. Bruce Jenner anyway is stupid , really stupid. My opinion though

Wow, if we are all going to get all religious here then I hope we do know that lesbianism is a sin as well . If we can be tolerable because we are living it what's so wrong in being a transgender . We don't know what this people are going through, we don't even have to support them but critising them? Based on religion? Especially as lesbians? Am not against your opinion, am just stating mine as well.

[Althena]

I can't believe I just read this much hate from another lesbian. You do know what the letter T in LGBTQI stand for right? Wow, just f***king wow!

For the record, Bruce/Caitlin is not confused, but some of us might be. Especially if our best argument is God did this, said that, bla-bla-bla. Isn't that the same thing homophobes say about anyone that doesn't conform to heterosexuality? The age old argument of God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve?

I mean I can even understand that you have not encountered a *trans person before but where is your empathy for a fellow human being struggling to find themselves and live their authentic lives? I can't even count how many times you used the word stupid but I really think you should read up on *trans issues today then take a good look at the mirror.

f***k, I still can't believe someone on this forum not only thinks this way, but actually thought it was okay to share this much hate with the rest of us. *logs off to calm down*

 

I won't say he's confused, I just think it's stupid to change your sex, I still do not understand the motive behind changing your sex . For Christ sake , if God creates you a woman , stay a woman , if he creates you a man , stay a man , God is not stupid , he's God , wiser than you , don't go changing your sex. I see all transgenders as stupid people or should I say mad. Bruce Jenner anyway is stupid , really stupid. My opinion though

[Fummy]

]

See, i wont pretend to understand how the whole trans thing works. Heck, i dont even entirely understand homosexuality. However, one would expect comments like these from a straight homophobe not from lesbians. Your comments are very judgemental and snobbish (no offense). We will not advance as a community if we do not learn to live and let live. We have to learn to tolerate and ultimately respect other peoples decisions mostly when it is one as personal as this. Spewing your judgement and disdain all over the place isn't helping nor changing anything. Imagine if you finally came out and this is all the reaction you got? How would you feel?

Majority of us are here looking for love and friendship in secret because we are afraid of the backlash we would undoubtedly get from society (friends and family included) if we came out and told the world "this is who I am. This is what makes me happy". And yet you sit behind your keyboards and malign another human being just because he is brave enough to do something you can't or won't? Please.

.

Mehn I was so surprised to read the comments. This is why we can't have a LGBT community in Nigeria simply because they can't be one. What are we really fighting for when we say we want to be free to live our lives the way we want, isn't it equality? The right to live and let live? OR should the equality only start and end with us? I just don't understand how we can complain about people criticising our llifestyle while we criticise others as well. It's not nice to criticise someone's lifestyle just because we don't agree with it or support it

[Fummy]

Sooo will Bruce be a lesbian or was Kris a lesbian cos I find it hard to believe she didn't know he was playing dress up all this years.Anyway his face looks cute as a woman,good thing he has enuff money to make his dreams come thru. For those of you lesbians that can't stand transgenders remember it's the same way straight people can't stand you. You don't have to accept anyone's lifestyle, all you have to do is respect it

Thank you

[Iris]

(For those who are angry......)

 

 

NEW YORK, N.Y.—Speaking publicly for the first time since completing gender transition, Caitlyn Jenner compares her emotional two-day photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz for the July cover of Vanity Fair to winning the gold medal for the decathlon at the 1976 Olympics. She tells Pulitzer Prize–winning V.F. contributing editor and author of Friday Night Lights Buzz Bissinger, “That was a good day, but the last couple of days were better. . . . This shoot was about my life and who I am as a person. It’s not about the fanfare, it’s not about people cheering in the stadium, it’s not about going down the street and everybody giving you ‘that a boy, Bruce,’ pat on the back, O.K. This is about your life.”

 

Jenner tells Bissinger about how she suffered a panic attack the day after undergoing 10-hour facial-feminization surgery on March 15—a procedure she believed would take 5 hours. (Bissinger reveals that Jenner has not had genital surgery.) She recalls thinking, “What did I just do? What did I just do to myself?” A counselor from the Los Angeles Gender Center came to the house so Jenner could talk to a professional, and assured her that such reactions were often induced by pain medication, and that second-guessing was human and temporary.

 

Jenner tells Bissinger the thought has since passed and not come back: “If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, ‘You just blew your entire life. You never dealt with yourself,’ and I don’t want that to happen.”

 

Bissinger spent hundreds of hours with the man the world knew as Bruce Jenner over a period of three months, and then countless hours with Caitlyn, also attending the photo shoot with Leibovitz at Jenner’s Malibu home.

 

Bissinger apologizes to Jenner for repeated pronoun confusion and asks whether she is sensitive about it. “I don’t really get hung up,” she tells him. “A guy came in the other day and I was fully dressed—it’s just habit, I said, ‘Hi, Bruce here,’ and I went, Oh f***k, it ain’t Bruce, I was screwing up doing it.”

 

Bissinger speaks extensively with Jenner’s four children from his first two marriages—Burt, 36, and Cassandra, 34, with first wife Chrystie, and Brandon, 33, and Brody, 31, with second wife Linda—and describes an insensitive father who had been absent for years at a time. Jenner openly acknowledges mistakes made with them as Bruce, and expresses genuine regret. Says Burt, “I have high hopes that Caitlyn is a better person than Bruce. I’m very much looking forward to that.”

 

For the Jenner children, the issue of the transition has become a non-issue. They were already aware of their father’s identity as a woman when he told them individually about the transition—Burt and Cassandra had learned from their mother roughly 20 years earlier, when they were 13 and 11; Brandon had assumed it because of the obvious physical changes he had observed; and Brody was told by his mother when he was 29. They tell Bissinger they feel both happiness for their father and inspiration at his bravery, and they all still see their dad as their dad regardless of any gender label. Brandon said he was a little taken aback when he saw Caitlyn for the first time after surgery and she pulled her top up to reveal her new breasts. “Whoa, I’m still your son,” he reminded her.

 

As part of the transition, Jenner started hosting small gatherings called “girls’ nights” with wine and food where Jenner could dress as desired and feel natural in the presence of women, and it was there that her daughter Cassandra met Caitlyn for the first time. “I was just nervous that I wouldn’t make her feel comfortable,” Cassandra tells Bissinger. “I was worried I wouldn’t say the right things or act the right way or seem relaxed.” But almost all of it melted away when she got there. “We talked more than we ever have. We could just be girls together.”

 

Despite the renewed relationship with their father, the Jenner children have refused to participate in Caitlyn’s docu-series for the E! network, set to debut this summer, forgoing financial gain in favor of preserving their father’s legacy. Initially, Caitlyn was “terribly disappointed and terribly hurt,” but has come to accept their decision. For her part, Caitlyn is prepared for the criticism that it’s a publicity stunt: “‘Oh, she’s doing a stupid reality show. She’s doing it for the money. She’s doing this, she’s doing that.’ I’m not doing it for money. I’m doing it to help my soul and help other people. If I can make a dollar, I certainly am not stupid. [i have] house payments and all that kind of stuff. I will never make an excuse for something like that. Yeah, this is a business. You don’t go out and change your gender for a television show. O.K., it ain’t happening. I don’t care who you are.”

 

 

Jenner tells Bissinger that since the Diane Sawyer interview aired “it’s exciting to go to the mailbox, because I get letters every day from all of these people from all over the world.” One of them was addressed “Bruce Jenner, Malibu, California,” as if she had become her own country.

 

Bissinger writes that Caitlyn seems happy and relaxed, with a sense of purpose and confidence. She can’t wait when she goes out now to tell the paparazzi to “make sure it’s a good shot,” instead of asking patrons to help shield her from them in the parking lot of the local Starbucks. She looks forward to more girls’ nights “where everybody is treating you the same way. You can talk about anything you want to talk about. You can talk about outfits. You can talk about hair and makeup, anything you want. It becomes not a big deal.” She says that on the E! series she will focus on ways of lowering the rates of suicide and attempted suicide in the transgender community, among other issues.

 

 

Jenner tells Bissinger that Bruce was “always telling lies.” (She even describes doing public appearances after winning the gold medal, where “underneath my suit I have a bra and panty hose and this and that and thinking to myself, They know nothing about me. . . . Little did they know I was totally empty inside.”) Caitlyn, she says, “doesn’t have any lies.”

 

“I’m not doing this to be interesting. I’m doing this to live,” Jenner tells Bissinger. She then jokes, “I’m not doing this so I can hit it off the women’s tee,” but she does tell Bissinger that on her E! show she plans to do a segment in which she sees if she can still hit a golf ball 300 yards off the tee, even with her very ample breasts.

 

Also in the story, Bissinger speaks at length with Jenner’s three ex-wives (including Kris about what she knew and when she knew it); with Jenner’s 89-year-old mother, Esther, about the possible motives behind her son’s transition; and with Jenner about how she was moved by Monica Lewinsky’s TED talk, and how she reacted to the Diane Sawyer interview.

 

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/06/caitlyn-jenner-bruce-cover-annie-leibovitz?mbid=social_facebook

[Hawken]

Please what exactly is a panic attack? Is the same thing as panicking? And do Nigerians ever get it?

[dequeen]

I want to apologize publicly for my comment at the beginning of this thread, it was judgemental, it was mean, it was wreck less and unthoughtful. Caitlyn/ Bruce has a right to live life however she/he chooses. it was a tough decision to make , just as tough as being gay in my country , Nigeria. She/ he has shown courage unlike most who hide in the closet, myself included.

Am sorry for my earlier statement, I think you are a heroine/ hero.

[Abystacy]

Let's all learn to respect other people's choices know matter what they are. It's their decision to make. It's doesn't affect or change the price of fuel or price of gala in the market neither does it affect your growth. You don't have to like or unlike. It's doesn't affect you in either way. I read some negative post about being stupid and confused and I wonder who nd what we are to judge and argue about another's choices. Jenner or Caitlyn is obviously happy with this and that's all that matters. Stop being all judgmental.

[kaka]

M in total support of bruce, its his life let him do whatever makes him happy

[dreamgal]

I just feel what he's doing is selfish. if u always knew you were a woman,why have kids? at 65? its just selfish