Caitlyn
Marie Jenner (born October 28, 1949), formerly known as Bruce Jenner,
is an American television personality and retiredOlympic gold
medal-winning decathlete. Jenner was a college
football player
for the Graceland Yellowjackets before incurring a knee
injury requiring surgery. Coach L. D. Weldon, who had coached Olympic
decathlete Jack Parker, convinced Jenner to try thedecathlon. After intense training, Jenner
won the 1976 Olympics decathlon title at the Montreal
Summer Olympics (after
a Sovietathlete had won the title in 1972) during the Cold War,[3][4] gaining fame as "an
all-American hero".[5] Jenner set a third successive world record
while winning the Olympics. The winner of the Olympic decathlon is
traditionally given the unofficial title of "world's greatest
athlete."[6] With that stature, Jenner subsequently
established a career in television, film, authoring, as a Playgirl cover model, auto racing,
and business.[7]
Jenner
has six children from marriages to ex-wives Chrystie Crownover, Linda
Thompson and Kris
Jenner. Since
2007, Jenner has appeared on the reality television series Keeping
Up with the Kardashians with Kris; their daughters Kendall and Kylie
Jenner; and
step-children Kourtney, Kimberley, Khloé and Rob
Kardashian.
Previously identifying publicly as a male, Jenner revealed her identity as
a trans woman in April 2015 and publicly announced her name
change from Bruce to Caitlyn in a July 2015 Vanity
Fair cover
story. Her name and gender change became official on September 25, 2015.[8] She has been called the
most famous openlytransgender woman in the world.[9][10][11] Jenner currently stars in
the reality television series I Am Cait, which focuses on her gender
transition.
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Caitlyn Jenner
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Jenner at the United Nations on Human
Rights Day,
December 10, 2015
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Born
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William
Bruce Jenner
October
28, 1949 (age 66)
Mount Kisco, New York, U.S.
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Residence
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Malibu, California, U.S.
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Alma mater
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Graceland University
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Years active
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1970–present
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Net worth
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US$100 million (2014
estimate)[1][2]
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Television
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·
Keeping Up with the Kardashians
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I Am Cait
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Political party
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Republican
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Religion
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Christianity
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Spouse(s)
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·
Chrystie
Crownover (m. 1972;div. 1981)
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Linda Thompson (m. 1981;div. 1986)
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Kris Kardashian (m. 1991;div. 2015)
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Children
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with
Crownover;
Burton Jenner
Cassandra Jenner
with
Thompson;
Brandon Jenner
Brody Jenner
with
Kardashian;
Kendall Jenner
Kylie Jenner
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Website
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Official website
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Sports career
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Country
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United
States
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Sport
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·
American football
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auto racing
·
track and field
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Event(s)
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Decathlon
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College team
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Graceland Yellowjackets
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Coached by
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L. D. Weldon
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Bert Bonanno
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Randy
Trentman
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Medal record[hide]
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Early life
Jenner
was born on October 28, 1949, in Mount Kisco, New York[12] to Esther Ruth (née McGuire) and William Hugh
Jenner. Her father was an arborist.[13][14] Her father and paternal
grandparents were from Canada.[15] She has two sisters, Lisa
and Pam.[16] Her younger brother, Burt, was killed in a
car accident in Canton, Connecticut, in 1976, shortly after Jenner's success at
the Olympic Games.[17][18]
As a
young child, Jenner was diagnosed with dyslexia.[19] She attended Sleepy Hollow
High School in Sleepy Hollow, New York for freshman and sophomore years[20][21] and Newtown
High School in Newtown, Connecticut for junior and senior years, graduating in
1968.[22] Jenner earned a football scholarship and attended Graceland
College (now Graceland University) in Lamoni, Iowa, but was forced to stop playing
football because of a knee injury.[23] Recognizing Jenner's
potential, a switch to the decathlon was encouraged by Graceland
track coach L. D. Weldon.[24] Jenner debuted in the
decathlon at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa in 1970, placing fifth.[25] Jenner graduated from
Graceland College in 1973 with a degree in physical education.[26]
Olympic career
Early
career
At the
1972 men's decathlon U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, Jenner was in fifth place
behind Steve Gough and Andrew Pettes. Needing to make up a 19-second gap on
Gough in the men's 1500 metres, Jenner ran a fast last lap, separating from the
other runners by 22 seconds to make the Olympic team, leading the Eugene
Register-Guard to
ask "Who's Jenner?"[27][28] A tenth-place finish
in the decathlon event at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich followed.[29] Watching Soviet Mykola
Avilov win
inspired Jenner to start an intense training regimen. "For the first time,
I knew what I wanted out of life and that was it, and this guy has it. I
literally started training that night in midnight, running through the streets
of Munich, Germany, training for the Games. I trained that day on through the
1976 Games, 6–8 hours a day, every day, 365 days a year."[30]
After
graduating from Graceland, Jenner married girlfriend Chrystie Crownover and
moved to San Jose, California. Chrystie provided most of the family income working
as a flight attendant for United Airlines.[31] Jenner sold insurance at
night (earning US$9,000 a year),[32] while training during the day.[33] In the era before
professionalism was allowed in athletics, this kind of training was unheard of. During this
period, Jenner trained at the San Jose City College (SJCC) and San Jose
State University (SJSU)
tracks.[34][35] Centered around Bert
Bonanno, the
coach at SJCC, San Jose was at the time a hotbed for training which
was called the "Track Capital of the World",[33] and included many other
aspiring Olympic athletes, such as Millard Hampton, Andre
Phillips, John
Powell, Mac
Wilkins,
and Al Feuerbach.[34][36] Jenner's most successful
events were the skill events of the second day.[5][37]
Olympic
success
Jenner
was the American champion in the men's decathlon event in 1974, and was
featured on the cover of Track & Field News's August 1974 issue.[38][39] While on tour in 1975,
Jenner won the French national championship,[40] and a gold medal at
the 1975 Pan American Games, earning the tournament record
with 8,045 points.[26] This was followed bynew world
records of
8,524 points at the U.S.A./U.S.S.R./Poland triangular meet in Eugene,
Oregon on
August 9–10, 1975, breaking Avilov's record, and 8,538 points at the 1976
Olympic trials, also in Eugene.[28] The only of the 13
decathlons Jenner contested between 1973 and 1976 that he lost were at the
1975 AAU National Championships, as Jenner failed to clear the pole vault.[26]
At the
1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Jenner achieved five personal bests on the first
day of the men's decathlon, a "home run" despite finishing the first
day in second place behind Guido Kratschmer of West
Germany.
"The second day has all my good events. If everything works out all right,
we should be ahead after it's all over." On the second day, Jenner had a
strong showing in the hurdles and discus, and personal bests in the pole vault
and javelin.[41] By that point, victory was virtually assured,
but it remained to be seen by how much Jenner would improve the record. In the
final event, the 1500 metres seen live on national television, Jenner
looked content to finish the long competition. Then Jenner sprinted the last
lap, making up a 50-meter deficit and nearly catching the event favorite
Soviet Leonid Litvinenko who was already well out of contention for
the overall title but whose personal best had been 8 seconds better than
Jenner's before the race. Jenner set a new personal best time, taking the gold
medal with a world-record score of 8,616 points.[5][28][30][42]
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100m wind
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Long jump wind
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Shot put
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High jump
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400m
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110H wind
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Discus
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Pole vault
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Javelin
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1500m
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10.94 +0.0 PB
819
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7.22 +0.0 PB
865
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15.35 PB
809
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2.03 PB
882
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47.51 PB
923
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14.84
866
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50.04
873
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4.80 PB
1005
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68.52 PB
862
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4:12.61 PB
714
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Impact
After the
event, Jenner took an American flag from a spectator and carried it during the
victory lap, starting a tradition that is now common among athletes.[43][44] Abandoning vaulting poles
in the stadium with no intention of ever competing again, Jenner stated that
"In 1972, I made the decision that I would go four years and totally
dedicate myself to what I was doing, and then I would move on after it was over
with. I went into that competition knowing that would be the last time I would
ever do this."[30] Jenner explained, "It hurts every day
when you practice hard. Plus, when this decathlon is over, I got the rest of my
life to recuperate. Who cares how bad it hurts?"[5]
As a
result of winning the Olympic decathlon, Jenner became a national hero,
receiving the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete
in the United States and being named the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year
(both in 1976).[4][23]
Jenner's 1976
world record was
broken by four points by Daley Thompson in 1980. In 1985, Jenner's Olympic decathlon
score was reevaluated against the IAAF's updated decathlon scoring
table and was reported as 8,634 for comparative purposes. This converted mark
stood as the American record until 1991, when it was surpassed by eventual gold
medalist and world record holder Dan O'Brien of Dan &
Dave fame.[45] As of 2011, Jenner was
ranked twenty-fifth on the world all-time list and ninth on the American
all-time list.[46]
Jenner
was inducted into the United States National Track and Field Hall of
Fame in
1980, the Olympic Hall of Fame in 1986, the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame and the Connecticut Sports
Hall of Fame in 1994, and the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.[47] For almost 20 years, San
Jose City College hosted an annual "Bruce Jenner Invitational"
competition.[48][49][50]
Post-Olympic career
Capitalizing
on Olympic fame
.jpg)
Jenner (right) greets Liberian
president William Tolbert at the White House on September 21, 1976, as
U.S. president Gerald Ford looks on
In the
1970s, Olympic athletes were considered amateur and were not allowed to seek or
accept payment for their positions as sports celebrities. In 1972, during
the Cold War, three major Olympic titles that had a long
history of American success—basketball, 100 metres, and decathlon—were won by Soviet athletes. Winning back the
decathlon title made Jenner an American hero. "After the Games were
over," Jenner said, "I happened to be the right guy, at that right
place, at that right time."[30] Tony
Kornheiser of The New
York Timeswrote,
"Jenner is twirling the nation like a baton. He and wife, Chrystie, are so
high up on the pedestal of American heroism, it would take a crane to get them
down."[5][51][52]
After
Olympic success, Jenner decided to cash in on celebrity status, which required
forgoing any future Olympic competition. Jenner's agent George Wallach felt at
the time that Jenner had a four-year window to capitalize upon. Wallach
reported that Jenner was being considered for the role of Superman, which ultimately went
to Christopher Reeve. "I really don't know how many offers we
have," Wallach claimed. "There are still unopened telegrams back at
the hotel and you just can't believe the offers that poured in during the first
two days."[53]
Jenner
appeared on the cover of the August 9, 1976 issue of Sports
Illustrated,[54] the February 1979 issue
of Gentleman's Quarterly,[55]and on the cover of the
1982 Playgirl magazine.[7] Jenner became a
spokesperson for Tropicana, Minolta and Buster
Brown shoes.[30]
Wheaties
spokesperson
Wheaties boxes featuring Jenner came
out around the same time the athlete became a spokesperson for the breakfast
cereal. The boxes would later sell for more than $200 after she announced her
transition in 2015.[56]
In 1977,
Jenner became a spokesperson for Wheaties brand breakfast cereal and
appeared on the now iconic front of the cereal box. After taking over from
Olympic champion Bob Richards, Jenner was the second of a succession of athletes
featured as spokespersons for the brand. Mary Lou Retton succeeded Jenner in 1984.[57]
On
November 22, 1977, Jenner went to San Francisco to refute charges filed by
the San Francisco district attorney, Joseph Freitas, thatGeneral
Mills, the
maker of Wheaties, had engaged in false advertising in its campaign featuring
Jenner. Jenner liked Wheaties and ate the breakfast cereal two to three times a
week, which supported the advertising campaign claims. Two days later, Freitas
withdrew the suit, saying that it was "a case of overzealousness" on
the part of his staff.[58]
When
Jenner came out as Caitlyn in 2015, General Mills stated that "Bruce
Jenner continues to be a respected member of Team Wheaties." After a
negative response to this initial statement, Mike Siemienas, General Mills's
brand media relations manager, clarified by saying, "Bruce Jenner has been
a respected member of Team Wheaties, and Caitlyn Jenner will continue to
be."[59]
Television
and film career
Jenner in 2012
Jenner
starred in the disco-era Village People comedy Can't
Stop the Music (1980).
The movie was aflop. Jenner's performance was nominated for the
1980 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor, and the film won the Award for
Worst Picture. It was
Jenner's only theatrical release until 2011. Jenner had some success in a
television career, starring in the made-for-TV movies The Golden
Moment: An Olympic Love Story (1980) and Grambling's
White Tiger (1981).
During the 1981-1982 season, Jenner became a semi-regular cast member on the
police series CHiPs, guest-starring as Officer Steve McLeish
(substituting for star Erik Estrada, who was lodged in a contract dispute with NBC and MGM), for six episodes.[3] Jenner also appeared on an
episode of the sitcom Silver Spoons called "Trouble with Words",
wherein her personal issues with dyslexia were revealed in a storyline about a
recurring teenage character with the same problem. Jenner appeared on the
series Learn to Read and in the video gamesOlympic
Decathlon (1981)
and Bruce Jenner's World Class Decathlon (1996). The iconic
"hero shot", the finish of the final event of 1976 Olympic decathlon,
and Wheaties cover were parodied by John Belushi on Saturday
Night Live,
endorsing "Little Chocolate Donuts".[60] In 1989, Jenner played
herself in the comedy short Dirty Tennis written by James Van
Patten.
Jenner
has appeared on a variety of game shows and reality television programs, including
starring with Grits Gresham in an episode of ABC'sThe
American Sportsman.[61] The program featured
Gresham hunting, fishing, or shooting in exotic areas with celebrities. In the
early 1990s, Jenner was the host of an infomercial for a stair-climbing
exercise machine called the Stair Climber Plus.[62]
In
January 2002, Jenner participated in an episode of the American series The
Weakest Link, featuring Olympic athletes.
In February and March 2003, Jenner was part of the cast of the American
series I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. She made a cameo appearance in
a season-three episode of The Apprentice, which aired in May 2005. She
also partnered with Tai Babilonia for Skating with Celebrities in a series that aired
January – March 2006 (they were eliminated during the fifth of seven
episodes), served as a guest judge on Pet Star on Animal
Planet, and
appeared on NBC's game show Identity as well as (with the
Kardashian family) Celebrity Family Feud. In November 2010, a photograph
of Jenner played the role of a janitorial resume in an episode of It's
Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Other
television and talk show appearances by Jenner include Nickelodeon's made-for-TV film Gym
Teacher: The Movie as
well as episodes of Murder, She Wrote, Family Guy,Pet Star on Animal
Planet, Identity, the Lingo Olympic Winners episode
and Celebrity Family Feud, and such talk shows as Hannity[63] and The
Bonnie Hunt Show.[episode needed]
Since
late 2007, Jenner has starred in the E! reality series Keeping
Up with the Kardashians along with wife Kris Jenner; stepchildren Kourtney, Kim, Khloé and Rob (from Kris's marriage to
attorney Robert Kardashian); and daughters Kylie and Kendall.[64] Jenner has also made cameo
appearances on the show's spin-off series.
In 2011,
Jenner appeared in the Adam Sandler comedy Jack and Jill in a scene with Al Pacino as an actor in a play.
Like Can't Stop the Music, the film won the Golden Raspberry Award
for Worst Picture.
Motorsports
career
Jenner
was a successful race car driver in the IMSA Camel GT series (International
Motor Sports Association) in the
1980s. Jenner's first victory came in the 1986 12 hours
of Sebring in
the IMSA GTO class driving the 7-Eleven Roush
Racing Ford
Mustang with
co-driver Scott Pruett. The pair won their class and finished 4th overall
in the 12-hour endurance race. 1986 was also the most successful year of
Jenner's career, finishing second in the championship to Pruett.[65][66] Jenner commented, "I
was a lot more badass runner than I was a driver."[67]
Business
Jenner's
company, Bruce Jenner Aviation, sells aircraft supplies to executives and
corporations.[32] Jenner was the business development vice
president for a staffing industry software application known as JennerNet,
which was based on Lotus Domino technology.[68]
Jenner
had licensed her previous name for Bruce Jenner's Westwood Centers for Nautilus
& Aerobics in the early 1980s, though she had no ownership in the centers,[32] which were owned by David
Cirotto.[69]
Personal life
Jenner is
a Christian, leans politically conservative, and is a Republican.[70][71] "I have gotten more
flak for being a conservative Republican", she said, "than I have for
being trans."[72] Although stopping short of an endorsement,
Jenner has stated that she likes Ted Cruz, a Republican
candidate for President
of the United States in
the 2016 election, despite Cruz's negative views of trans people.[73] On her reality show I
Am Cait, Jenner said although she doesn't support Donald
Trump, she
thinks he would be good for women's issues. She then stated she would never
support Hillary Clinton.[74]
Marriages
Prior to
her public gender transition, she had been married three times. She was married
to Chrystie Scott (née Crownover) from 1972 to 1981. They have two
children, son Burton and daughter Cassandra, known as Burt and Casey Jenner.[75][76] Jenner and Scott's divorce
was finalized the first week of January 1981.[77]
On
January 5, 1981, Jenner married actress Linda Thompson in Hawaii.[78] They have two sons
together, Brandon Jenner and Sam Brody Jenner (known as Brody).[79] By February 1986, Jenner
and Thompson had separated and subsequently divorced.[80] Their sons later starred on
the reality show The Princes of Malibu, and Brody appeared in the
reality show The Hills.
On April
21, 1991, Jenner married Kris Kardashian (née Houghton) after five months
of dating.[81] They have two daughters, Kendall and Kylie
Jenner. While
married, Jenner was also the step-parent to Kourtney, Kim, Khloé and Rob,
Kris's children from her previous marriage who star in Keeping
Up with the Kardashians. The couple announced their separation in October 2013,[82][83] though they had actually
separated in June.[84] Kris filed for divorce in September 2014,
citing irreconcilable differences.[85] Their divorce terms were
finalized in December 2014 and came into effect on March 23, 2015, because of a
six-month state legal requirement.[86]
Fatal car
crash
In
February 2015, Jenner was involved in a fatal multiple-vehicle collision
on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California. Kim Howe, an animal
rights activist and
actress, was killed when Jenner's SUV ran into Howe's car. Accounts of the
sequence of collisions have varied, as have the number of people injured.[87] Prosecutors declined to
file criminal charges, but three civil lawsuits were brought by Howe's
stepchildren and drivers of other cars involved in the collision.[88][89] Jessica Steindorff, a
Hollywood agent who was hit by Howe's car, settled her case in December 2015.
Howe's stepchildren settled their case in January 2016.[90] Financial details were not
disclosed in either case. The third lawsuit is ongoing.[91]
Gender transition
Coming
out as a transgender woman
The Washington Post commented that Jenner's
debut Vanity Fair cover, shot by Annie
Leibovitz, had
special significance for its subject: "After all the magazine covers that
featured the former athlete, once lauded as the 'world's greatest athlete,' the
Leibovitz photograph will be the most meaningful. Looking directly at the
camera, Jenner is finally herself for the first time publicly."[6][92]
In an
April 2015, 20/20 interview with Diane
Sawyer,
Jenner came out as a trans woman, saying she had dealt with gender
dysphoria since
her youth, and that, "for all intents and purposes, I'm a woman."
Jenner cross dressed for many years and took hormone
replacement therapy but
stopped after her romance with Kris Kardashian in the early 1990s became more
serious.[93][94][95] Jenner recounts having permission to explore
her gender identity on her own travels but not when they were coupled, and that
not knowing the best way to talk about the many issues contributed to the
deterioration of the 23-year-long marriage, which formally ended in 2015.[95]
While she
has undergone some cosmetic surgery, she has neither undergone sex
reassignment surgery nor
ruled it out; she stated that, for her, life as a woman is primarily a matter
of mental state and lifestyle.[96] She said she has never been
sexually attracted to men, but has instead always been sexually attracted to
women, and that, keeping in mind the difficulty people have understanding the
difference between sexual orientation and gender identity, she will identify
as asexual for now.[97][98]
Media
attention
In June
2015, Jenner debuted her new name and image, and began publicly using feminine
pronoun self-descriptors.[99] Jenner held a renaming ceremony in July 2015,
adopting the name Caitlyn Marie Jenner.[100][101] Prior to her 20/20 interview,
a two-part special titledKeeping Up with the Kardashians: About Bruce was
filmed with the family in which she answered questions and prepared her
children for personal and public aspects of the transition.[102] In the special, which aired
in May 2015, the point was emphasized that there is no one right way to
transition. Jenner made it a priority to ensure that all her children were
independent first before focusing on her transition.[102]In September 2015, her name was
legally changed to Caitlyn Marie Jenner and gender to female.[103]
Jenner's
announcement that she is transgender came at an unprecedented time for trans
visibility, including legislative initiatives.[104][105]The 20/20 interview
had 20.7 million viewers, making it television's "highest-ever rated
newsmagazine telecast among adults 18–49 and adults 25–54".[106] The Daily
Beast wrote
that Jenner's honesty, vulnerability, and fame may have caused "cheap
jokes" about trans people to "seem mean to a mainstream audience on
an unprecedented scale".[107] Noting the shift in how
comedians treated Jenner's transition,The Daily Beast saw the
change as the same evolution that took place in acceptance of LGBT people as a whole when
"comedians finally cross the critical threshold from mockery to creativity
in their joke-telling".[107]
Jenner's
emerging gender identity was revealed in a Vanity
Fair interview
written by Buzz Bissinger. Annie Leibovitz photographed the cover, the
magazine's first to feature an openly transgender woman, which was captioned
"Call me Caitlyn".[108][109] Using her Twitter handle,
@Caitlyn_Jenner, she tweeted "I'm so happy after such a long struggle to
be living my true self. Welcome to the world Caitlyn. Can't wait for you to get
to know her/me." Time declared this tweet the tenth most retweeted
tweet of 2015, based on retweets of tweets by verified users from January 1 to
November 10 of that year.[110] Jenner amassed over one million Twitter
followers in four hours and three minutes, setting a newGuinness
World Record and
surpassing United States President Barack Obama, who, a month before,
accomplished the same feat in four hours and fifty-two minutes.[111][112]Four days later Jenner was up to
2.37 million followers, with another 1.5 million followers on Instagram.[113]
Jenner
also received criticism. Beginning in September 2015, she was depicted on the
satirical American animated program South Park, which parodied her
supporters' political correctness, as well as her driving record. The Jenner-related
episodes were "Stunning and Brave", "Where My Country Gone?", "Sponsored
Content",
"Truth and Advertising" and "PC Principal Final Justice" from the show's 19th
season.[114][115][116]
Reception
In August
2015, Jenner won the Social Media Queen award at the Teen
Choice Awards.[117] In October 2015, Glamour named her one of its 25
Glamour Women of the Year, calling her a "Trans Champion."[118] Feminist author Germaine
Greer called
the magazine's decision misogynistic, questioning whether a transgender woman
could be better than "someone who is just born a woman."[119] Jenner also received
criticism, including from actress Rose McGowan, for stating (in a Buzzfeed interview[120]) that the hardest part about
being a woman is figuring out what to wear. McGowan argued, "We are more
than deciding what to wear. We are more than the stereotypes foisted upon us by
people like you. You're a woman now? Well f**king learn that we have had a VERY
different experience than your life of male privilege."[121] Chris Mandle of The
Independent stated,
"Jenner has gone on to inspire countless men and women, but her comments,
which were made after she was celebrated at Glamour Magazine's Women Of The
Year in New York were branded 'offensive and insulting'." He added,
"People began tweeting the other, harder things women have to deal with,
such as institutionalised oppression, abuse and sexual assault."[122] James Smith, husband
of Moira Smith, the only female New York Police Department
officer to die on September 11, 2001, returned Moira's "Woman of the
Year" award, given posthumously. Referring to Jenner as a man, he stated
that he found Glamour giving Jenner the same award insulting
to Moira's memory, and referred to the matter as a publicity stunt.[123][124] Smith later said that,
having supported transgender youth and Glamour's decision to honor
transgender actress Laverne Cox in 2014, he did not object because Jenner is
transgender; he objected to Jenner's "hardest part about being a
woman" commentary; this proved to him that Jenner "is not truly a
woman. I believe this comment and others he has made trivializes the
transgender experience as I have witnessed it."[125]
Conversely,
Adrienne Tam of The Daily Telegraph argued that Jenner deserved
the Glamour award, stating, "What McGowan failed to take
into consideration was the jesting manner in which Jenner spoke." Tam
said, "[Jenner] also immediately followed up her 'what women wear' dilemma
with: 'It's more than that. I'm kind of at this point in my life where I'm
trying to figure this womanhood thing out. It is more than hair, makeup,
clothes, all that kind of stuff. There's an element here that I'm still kind of
searching for. And I think that'll take a while. Because I think as far as
gender, we're all on a journey. We're all learning and growing about ourselves.
And I feel the same way." Tam considered McGowan's criticism to be over
the top, and stated of James Smith's criticism, "The salient point here is
one about courage. We easily recognise physical courage such as saving orphans
from burning buildings, or ordinary people putting their lives in the line of
fire. It is far harder to recognise mental courage." She added,
"Without a doubt, the police officer who died in the September 11 attacks
was courageous. But so is Jenner. It's a different kind of courage, but it is
courage nonetheless."[126]
In
November 2015, Jenner was listed as one of Entertainment
Weekly's 2015 Entertainers of the Year.[127] In December 2015, she was
named Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating Person of 2015.[128] Also in that month, she was
listed on Time magazine's eight-person shortlist for the
2015 Person of the Year,[129] and Bing released its list of the
year's "Most Searched Celebrities", which Jenner was at the top of,
and declared Jenner's Vanity Fair cover the second in a list of "top celeb
moments of 2015."[130][131] She was the second most searched person
on Google in 2015.[132]
LGBT
community
With her
profile raised by her coming out as a trans woman in 2015, Jenner has been
called the most famous openly transgender woman in the world.[8][9][10][11] She is also one of the most
recognized LGBT people in the world and arguably the most
famous LGBT athlete.[133] Jenner acknowledged in
her 20/20 interview that part of her reason for being so
visible was to bring attention to gender dysphoria, violence against trans
women, and other transgender issues.[134] She also sought to promote
more informed discussion of LGBT issues at a time when the trans community has
unprecedented visibility.[134] She signed with Creative
Artists Agency's
speakers department and will collaborate with the CAA Foundation on a
philanthropic strategy focusing on LGBT issues.[135] She made a private
appearance at the Los Angeles LGBT Center in June 2015, where she
spoke with at-risk trans youth.[136]
Jenner
received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award during the 2015 ESPY
Awards in
July 2015. ESPN executive producer Maura Mandt said Jenner was given the award
because "she has shown the courage to embrace a truth that had been hidden
for years, and to embark on a journey that may not only give comfort to those
facing similar circumstances, but can also help to educate people on the
challenges that the transgender community faces."[137] She is the third
consecutive openly LGBT person to receive the award following footballer Michael
Sam (2014)
and anchorwoman Robin Roberts (2013).[138]
In
October, Jenner presented the Point Foundation's Horizon Award to television
producers Rhys Ernst (of the show Transparent) and Zach Zyskowski (of the
show Becoming Us).[139][140] This was her second public
speaking engagement after her gender transition.[140]
In
November, Jenner was listed as one of the nine runners-up for The
Advocate 's
Person of the Year.[141] That month she was also listed as one of
the Out 100 of 2015, with Outcalling her the "Newsmaker
of the Year."[142] On International Human Rights Day, Jenner discussed transgender
rights with Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.[143] In 2016, Jenner was on the
cover of The Advocate's February/March issue.[144]
I Am Cait
Main
article: I Am Cait
Jenner's
gender transition is the subject of I Am Cait, initially an
eight-part TV documentary series, which premiered on E! in July 2015 to an audience
of 2.7 million viewers.[145][146][147] The series focuses on Jenner's transition and
how it affects her relationships with her family and friends. The show
additionally explores how Jenner adjusts to what she sees as her job as a role
model for the transgender community.[148][149] The show has been renewed
for a second season to air in 2016.
