Bruce Jenner interview highlights transgender inequality

Has the transgender community had its “Ellen” moment?

Bruce Jenner’s interview with Diane Sawyer, in which the Olympic gold medalist turned reality TV star acknowledged that he is transgender, certainly helped put trans issues on the map and put a human face on the emotional challenges faced by many transgender people in the same way that Ellen DeGeneres’ public coming out did for many gay and lesbian people. The two-hour ABC special was seen by 17 million people.

“He’s lived a lie his whole life about who he is,” Jenner said of his experience spending most of his 65 years as a man. “And I can’t do that any longer.”

But even Laverne Cox, the most prominent of Jenner’s celebrity cheering section, questioned whether his story is relevant to the experience of the vast majority of transgender people. After calling him a “hero,” Cox, an Emmy-winning transgender actress, noted that Jenner’s story is unique to his status. “Bruce’s story is very specific,” she said in an interview with MSNBC. “Most trans people don’t have that kind of privilege, don’t have the kind of privilege that I have or you have.” 

She pointed out that the increased visibility of the transgender movement in the last year hadn’t kept trans teens like Leelah Alcorn, whose parents pushed her into so-called conversion therapy to try to get her to accept her birth sex, from committing suicide. And it didn’t keep seven transgender women from being murdered in the first two months of 2015 alone.

“Visibility matters,” Cox said. “But structural change and policy change is really what needs to happen so that the lives of all trans people will be better.”

Activists in the trans community agreed that the challenges faced by most trans people, including violence and unemployment, are not reflected in Jenner’s story.

Kylar W. Broadus, the executive director of the advocacy group Trans People of Color Coalition, lauded ABC for producing an interview that wasn’t “salacious” but noted that trans people face disproportionate violence, rampant unemployment due to prejudice against them and high levels of extreme poverty. About 15 percent have annual household incomes of $10,000 or less. “Most people experience harassment or mistreatment on the job,” he said.

The discrimination starts even earlier, Broadus said. About 80 percent of trans kids face bullying and harassment from students and teachers, so they often drop out. “They are so stigmatized that they just don’t want to go,” he said.

Certainly, Jenner didn’t have the option of hiding. Because of his role on the flashy reality show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” he was a frequent target of paparazzi and took to shrouding himself in hoodies as photographers taunted him. After they swarmed to follow him to a doctor’s appointment last year when he had his Adam’s apple shaved down, Jenner told Sawyer, he briefly considered suicide.

“It was really hard to watch [Jenner] having to hide in a hoodie,” said Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “I think the courage and integrity that Jenner showed was just incredible.”

While Jenner may not be representative of most transgender people, Broadus said he hopes that the millions of Americans who watched the interview will be more aware of what it means to be transgender.

“You know somebody who is trans whether you like it or not,” he said. “Get to know somebody consciously who is trans, because that’s what really changes hearts and minds.”

(Editor’s note: Since Jenner asked Sawyer use “he” during their interview, Al Jazeera will use male pronouns to refer to Jenner until he indicates otherwise.)