Don't Be Absent for Transgender 101

In last night's two-hour ABC interview, Bruce Jenner, no stranger to media attention, explained to Diane Sawyer and nearly 17 million viewers, his internal struggles with being transgender, a part of himself he has kept hidden for decades. 

“For all intents and purposes, I’m a woman."

Though he identifies as a woman, for the time being, Bruce still uses masculine pronouns for himself, so I will do the same in this post, though in the interview, he also referred to himself as "Bruce" and "her".  Bruce has not yet revealed to the public the female name he has chosen but jokingly insisted that it does not start with a "K" and that "she is definitely a Jenner" in regards to his famous reality TV  family so many, like myself, Keep Up With. 

“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.”

The reason this is so hard for people to understand is because we live in a heteronormative society, which entirely neglects and alienates groups of people. As is the problem with a white-centric, cis-centric feminism, which intersectional feminism hopes to address, so, too must we recognize that we need to start changing the way we talk about gender and sexuality in order to stop marginalizing groups.

Bruce Jenner has become "the unlikely center of a national dialogue around gender." Sawyer's questions and clarifications, paired with Jenner's genuine honesty and patient explanations, hopefully will establish once and for all that sexual desire and gender are too separate things. When Sawyer asked Bruce if, since he identified as a woman, but was attracted to women, if that made him a lesbian or how that worked, he cautioned her:

"You're going back to the sex thing and it's apples and oranges."

While it can be tricky to understand the difference when the words "gender" and "sex" and "sexuality" so often are interchanged indiscriminately, those who have the privilege of ignorance by identifying with what is considered the norm, need to consider that not everyone fits into this false mold and binary.  

The Trans Student Educational Resources website posted this extremely helpful graphic to clarify confusion about the distinction between gender and sex assigned at birth. The definitions below the graphic, also from the website, provide further insight. I love the Gender Unicorn because before I was introduced to it at a WYSE (Women and Youth Supporting Each Other) reflection,  I didn't have a clear understanding of the distinction between sex and gender; I had never even considered the difference between romantic and sexual attraction. 

Definitions:
Gender Identity: Gender Identity: One's internal sense of being male, female, neither of these, both, or another gender. Everyone has a gender identity, including you. For transgender people, their sex assigned at birth and their own internal sense of gender identity are not the same. Female, woman, and girl and male, man, and boy are also NOT necessarily linked to each other but are just six common gender identities.
Gender Expression/Presentation: The physical manifestation of one's gender identity through clothing, hairstyle, voice, body shape, etc. Most transgender people seek to make their gender expression (how they look) match their gender identity (who they are), rather than their sex assigned at birth.
Sex Assigned at Birth: The assignment and classification of people as male, female, intersex, or another gender based on a combination of anatomy, hormones, chromosomes. It is important we don't simply use "sex" because of the vagueness of the definition of sex and its place in transphobia. Chromosomes are frequently used to determine sex from prenatal karyotyping (although not as often as genitalia). Chromosomes do not determine genitalia.
Sexually Attracted To: Sexual Orientation. It is important to note that sexual and romantic/emotional attraction can be from a variety of factors including but not limited to gender identity, gender expression/presentation, and sex assigned at birth.
Romantically/Emotionally Attracted To: Romantic/emotional orientation. It is important to note that sexual and romantic/emotional attraction can be from a variety of factors including but not limited to gender identity, gender expression/presentation, and sex assigned at birth.

Not only is Jenner bringing awareness to the less talked about identities, he also puts a face, a famous one, to the issues so many transgender people have had to face, largely in silence. To those who question his motives, absurdly suggesting he has decided to transition to become a woman for publicity purposes, Jenner refutes:

We’re going to make a difference in the world with what we’re doing, and if the whole Kardashian show gave me a foothold into that world, to be able to go out there and do something good, I got not problem with that. 

Also in the interview, in a very relatable way, Jenner explains how hard it was to tell the people he loved, especially his children, for fear of how it might affect them. Drian Juarez, who has faced harassment and violence as a transgender woman, related to the kind of fear Jenner described about coming out to his family. Jenner did not want to disappoint his children in particular and Juarez feared losing her support system and loved ones. Though she and other members of the transgender community were apprehensive about what ABC's coverage would entail, Juarez was very impressed: 

“It almost feels like Transgender 101...

People of Bruce Jenner’s generation had a lot of misinformation on what being transgender is, and I hope they will be able to have some dialogue about this...I really feel like this is a turning point in terms of the awareness of trans identity...things are changing, and I hope this is a sign of how things can change for the better.”

Jenner and Sawyer did not shy away from the hard truths about what transgender people face every single day, as we've seen in the news with high rates of violence against them and disproportional poverty rates. A 2011 study by the National Center for Transgender Equality found that 41% of transgender and gender nonconforming people (of the 6,450 surveyed) had attempted suicide.

Just last December, the tragic suicide of Leelah Alcorn started a conversation about society's treatment of transgender people, when the suicide note she posted to Tumblr revealed what sparked her sense of hopelessness was her parents' refusal to accept her for who she was.

Leelah's note read, in regards to when she first learned what it meant to be transgender:

"...After 10 years of confusion I finally understood who I was. I immediately told my mom, and she reacted extremely negatively, telling me that it was a phase, that I would never truly be a girl, that God doesn't make mistakes, that I am wrong. If you are reading this, parents, please don't tell this to your kids."

Jenner's family, on the other hand, is setting an example for the rest of the world, showing their dad well-deserved respect and unconditional love.

Brandon Jenner described how proud he was, as a kid, when people recognized him by his last name as Bruce's son, the son of an Olympic gold medalist and American hero. Brandon's sentiments about his father now when people recognize him as his son are just as positive. He told his father during the interview:

I saw a sense of bravery that is, for all your previous accomplishments, I think far exceeds all of them, I’m just honored and more proud than ever to be a part of the family.

The rest of Jenner's family also voiced their support on social media. Bruce describes Kim's support, which stemmed from Kanye's wise take on the situation. He explained to her, in one of the biggest moments of the interview that no matter what you have in life, a beautiful wife or beautiful baby:

"I’m nothing if I can’t be me.”

Bruce's poignant interview, ABC's well-informed and tasteful coverage, and the great example his family is setting has inspired members of the transgender community and allies everywhere that this very well could be one of the biggest turning points of our time. Bruce has accepted who he truly is and it's time the rest of us do the same, both for ourselves and for everyone around us.

Life is hard enough without having to feel like you can't be true to yourself. Or that your family cannot accept you.

Bruce's interview is an excellent starting point towards changing this.