There's been so much talk and rampant speculation about Bruce Jenner's sexuality in recent months that his admission in that Diane Sawyer interview that he is, indeed, transgender didn't surprise anybody. Bruce Jenner, who was known as the 1976 Olympic decathlon champion long before he became a reality TV caricature, will soon begin the transition from life as a man to life as a woman. So what?
I'm not sure anyone cares that Bruce Jenner's transgender. And I don't mean that in a negative way. America has become so evolved as a country that this isn't shocking, and it's something that's become accepted. There are plenty of transgender people out there. Bruce Jenner just happens to be one of them. Just like when Jason Collins came out as gay, it was a brave step, but Bruce Jenner didn't owe this revelation to anyone. What he wants to do with his own life is none of our business. (If you're ignorant and closed-minded enough to have a problem with it, I ask you this: how does Bruce Jenner becoming a woman affect your life in any way?)
The reason this is such a big deal, of course, is the same reason Jason Collins' announcement was such a big deal. Bruce Jenner will now become the face of the transgender community. Until now, Chaz Bono was the most famous transgender person. But Bruce Jenner's a much bigger name than Chaz Bono, and Bruce Jenner's been in the public eye much longer. He was a famous athlete, then he was on that stupid, mind-numbing Kardashian show (thanks, O.J.). I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it was to be on that show with this deep, dark secret and all the questions and snickering that came with it.
Jenner will still go by "Bruce" for now and hasn't decided on whether or not to go through with gender reassignment surgery. Should he do it (which I think he will and is one of the reasons he decided to go public), Jenner will become, by far, the highest profile professional athlete to go from male to female.
Shortly after Jenner won Olympic gold in Montreal, Renee Richards emerged on the professional women's tennis circuit. After Richards came out of nowhere and began winning tournaments, people eventually figured out Renee Richards was actually Dick Raskind, who had been the captain of the Yale men's tennis team before going on to a successful amateur career, playing in the US Championships five times. (It was actually the similarity of Richards' game to Raskind's that led to her being exposed.)
In the late 70s, being transgender was, to put it mildly, slightly less accepted than it is today. They tried to bar Richards from tournaments, arguing it was unfair for her to compete against women. After they refused to let her enter the 1976 US Open, Richards successfully sued for the right to play. The judge in the case acknowledged Richards as a female and said that denying her the right to compete in women's tournaments was a violation of her rights as a woman, clearing the way for her to play in the 1977 US Open. Richards lost in the first round in singles, but made the doubles final, and went on to have a four-year career on the women's tennis tour.
ESPN aired a documentary about Richards in 2011. It explains the challenges she went through, both personally and professionally, before and after the surgery. This is a different time. Bruce Jenner will face no such discrimination. Sure, there's going to be closed-minded people who aren't accepting of his lifestyle choice, but the transition will likely be much easier for Bruce Jenner than it was for Renee Richards. And let's not forget, Jenner already has a TV deal for a series documenting the transition.
Of course, Jenner and Richards underwent the transition much later in life, but there's been some recent examples of transgender athletes realizing who they are while still in their athletic primes. George Washington basketball player Kye Allums came out as transgender in 2010 and played for the Colonials' women's team in 2010-11 while identifying himself as male. Then in 2012, Keelin Godsey, a transgender man, competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the women's hammer throw. Godsey didn't make the team, but still competes as a female while identifying as male.
Godsey's situation led to a whole new set of questions. If the system is designed for men to compete against men and women compete against women, where do transgender athletes fit in? These very questions led to South African Caster Semenya, the 2009 world champion in the women's 800 meters, not being able to compete for more than a year while she was forced to undergo gender tests. For privacy reasons, they never publicly disclosed the results of Semenya's gender tests, but she's competed without incident ever since and won the silver medal in the 800 at the London Olympics.
Obviously, the question of transgender athletes and their eligibility doesn't effect Bruce Jenner. He's 65 years old and he won his Olympic gold 40 years ago. But Jenner's revelation does once again bring the topic to the forefront. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. This is a different world we live in.
Transgender people walk among us. Some of them even compete in sports, probably even at a high level. It's their right to live their lives however they want to, but when it comes to athletics, we have to find a balance between not violating their rights as individuals while also making it a level playing field for everyone else. How we do that I don't know. But there has to be a solution that's fair for everybody.
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