Transgender visibility is at an all time high, with Laverne Cox’s appearance on the April 2014 cover of TIME magazine, and now Caitlyn Jenner’s debut on the cover of Vanity Fair one year later, after her April 20/20 interview with Diane Sawyer. However, this has not always been the case. The ‘T’ in the LGBT community has often been ignored, even with the recent rise in marriage equality and acceptance of different sexual orientations.
Born William Bruce Jenner, the olympic decathlon gold medalist was heralded as an American hero, the world’s greatest athlete, and—unofficially—was considered to be the ideal man. Jenner won the 1976 Montreal Olympics decathlon, an American cold-war victory after the Soviet Union’s athletes had dominated the sport in the 1972 Munich Olympics. Bruce Jenner became a household name after her image was used on cereal boxes and various other advertising campaigns.
Jenner came out so publically in part to bring attention to gender dysphoria, and the violence and discrimination faced by trans/trans* individuals. She herself stated during her interview with Sawyer that she was not what people typically associated with gender dysphoria, being a Christian, politically conservative republican.
Various Trans*/trans individuals have expressed concerns that with Caitlyn Jenner’s fame, she will be taken as the face of the transgendered community, when she is not the sole representative of this community. However, her fame brings a positive light in the period of transgender acceptance by the public. For years, different sexual orientations have become so visible that many people now have LGB friends or family members, giving a human face to the issues faced in the fight for acceptance. Diane Sawyer’s interview had 20 million viewers when it aired, and now 20 million people can say that they know a transgender individual.
Caitlyn Jenner’s gender transition will be documented in a 6-part documentary series, premiering this July. While Caitlyn Jenner is not the only face of the transgender community, her public debut as Caitlyn is an important step forward in trans* acceptance.
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