(Nytimes) - This was shocking: Bruce Jenner is a Republican.
That
revelation on Friday night actually was a little surprising, given that
the G.O.P. is not known for embracing transgender equality. But
otherwise, there wasn’t much suspense to what Mr. Jenner told Diane Sawyer
in his long-awaited television interview with ABC News – it has been
pretty clear for some time that he identifies as a woman and has begun
the transitioning process.
The
doubts were not about that, but about his credibility as a champion of
the transgender cause. Mr. Jenner has been such a standout in the
transactional exhibitionism that is reality television that there was a
risk that the coming out would seem as crass and contrived as an episode
of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
That
didn’t happen. Mr. Jenner explained himself well, with passion and
dignity. His emotion (he was teary at times) seemed genuine and quite
touching. He told Ms. Sawyer to call him Bruce and refer to him as he,
saying this was his last interview as a man. He didn’t say what his
name would be in future encounters, and referred to his inner self as
“her.”
Mr.
Jenner didn’t explain everything. This wasn’t a confrontational
interview or even a probing one: It was a careful, collaborative effort
between Ms. Sawyer and her guest to turn a celebrity get into a public
service announcement.
With
the aid of experts and clips, ABC threaded Mr. Jenner’s story with
information about the transgender world, marking signs of acceptance (a Time Magazine cover and the award-winning Amazon series “Transparent”)
and also the vestigial stigmas that lead some people to depression,
isolation and even suicide. ABC provided profiles of Christine Jorgensen
and the tennis player Renee Richards.
“I’m
not stuck in anybody’s body, it’s just who I am as a human being,” Mr.
Jenner said. “My brain is much more female than it is male.” And while
he showed Ms. Sawyer a black cocktail dress he would wear to a private
dinner the two had planned, he didn’t allow himself to be filmed in
women’s clothes — and that was the right call. Mr. Jenner explained that
his femininity isn’t located in his sexuality or appearance, but in his
soul. There was no need to give paparazzi a tabloid shot of his new
physique.
He
rather sweetly said that for now, his aspirations for his newfound
freedom are modest. He said he wanted to “be able to have my nail polish
on long enough that it actually chips off.”
This
was a coming-out about gender identity and also of television genre.
Mr. Jenner tried to disentangle himself from his reality show skin,
shedding the slightly goofy, Father Knows Least persona he plays on E!
to reveal a more forceful and assertive version of himself. He became
exercised – and even sarcastic — when Ms. Sawyer told him that his
Kardashian years (she only referred to the series as “that reality
show”) made people wonder whether this too was a publicity stunt. “Yeah,
right,” he drawled.
Instead,
he reframed his reality show career as the price he paid to create a
platform for his new calling. “Yeah, I know,” he said, referring to what
Ms. Sawyer described as “a shameless selling of everything.” He said
this was different. “But what I am doing is going to do some good and
we’re going to change the world. I really firmly believe that,” he said shaking his finger at Ms. Sawyer.
He added, “And if the whole Kardashian show and reality television gave
me that foothold into that world, to be able to go out there and really
do something good, I’m all for it. I got no problem with that.
Understand?”
His
reality show days aren’t over, however. Mr. Jenner said he was doing an
eight-episode documentary with E! that will air this summer but said he
drew the line at giving the camera the kind of access he allowed on
“Keeping Up eith The Kardashians.” Whatever further medical procedures
he will undergo, he will do privately, without a film crew. “I’m not
shooting any of this, I’m not filming anything,” he said. “To me it’s
very degrading.”
Mr.
Jenner wasn’t always likable in the interview, but he seemed sincere.
And much of what he said about having lived a lie made sense. Mr.
Jenner, who was the star of the 1976 Olympics, explained that his
obsessive determination to succeed as an athlete allowed him to block
out everything else. As he put it, “I didn’t have to deal with me.”
Mr.
Jenner described himself as conservative and Ms. Sawyer seemed taken
aback. When she asked him if he would ask Republican leaders to champion
the transgender cause, Mr. Jenner was full of aplomb. “I would do that,
yeah, in a heartbeat, why not? And I think they’d be very receptive to
it.”
His
four children from his first two marriages participated in the
interview to show their support – Brandon was especially kind, saying,
“I feel like I’m getting an upgraded version of my dad.”
Neither
of his two daughters with Kris Kardashian nor his four famous
stepchildren appeared on the show, but he said they had all come around
after the initial shock, especially Kim. (It wasn’t entirely a surprise
to her: he said she had once caught him wearing a dress.)
He
said his main concern about telling the truth was for his children, and
that pain was evident. But he seemed surprisingly detached from how his
ex-wives may have felt, including Ms. Kardashian. He said he had no
complaints about her. Almost cavalierly, he added, “Honestly, if she
would have been really good with it and understanding we’d probably
still be together.”
In
Hollywood, the line between bravery and brazen self-promotion can blur
pretty easily. Mr. Jenner took a difficult step and made the best
possible case for himself while serving the cause he says he will from
now on make his life’s work.
“I
am saying goodbye to people’s perception of me and who I am,” he said.
“I’m not saying goodbye to me because this has always been me.”
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