Caitlyn Jenner has called for the acceptance of transgender people as she made her first major public appearance as a woman.
The Olympic gold medallist and reality star formerly known as Bruce Jenner was presented with the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at ESPN’s annual ESPYs ceremony honouring excellence in sport.
Cheered on by her family, including daughters Kendall and Kylie Jenner and stepdaughters Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian, the decathlon champion implored viewers to help improve the lives of transgender people.
Dressed in a pale pink, floor-length gown, she implored the fashion critics: “Please be kind on me, I’m new at this,” before continuing: “The real truth is that before a couple of months ago I had never met anybody else who was trans, who was like me. I had never met a trans person. I dealt with my situation on my own, in private, and this turned this journey into an already incredible education, it’s been eye-opening, inspiring but also frightening.
This transition has been harder on me than anything I could have imagined
“All across this country right now, all across the world at this moment, there are young people coming to terms with being transgender. They are learning that they are different and they are trying to figure out how to handle that on top of every other problem that a teenager has.
“They are getting bullied, they are getting beaten up, they are getting murdered and they are committing suicide. The numbers are staggering but they are the reality of what it is like to be trans today.”
She drew attention to the recent deaths of two young trans people, one who had been murdered and one who had committed suicide, saying: “Every time something like this happens people wonder could it have been different if spotlighting this issue with more attention could have changed the way things happened.
Addressing the room packed with American superstar athletes, including Peyton Manning, LeBron James and Alex Rodriguez, she said: “As a group, as athletes, how you conduct your lives, what you say and what you do is absorbed and observed by millions of people, especially young people.
“I know I am clear with my responsibility going forward to tell my story the right way for me, to keep learning, to do whatever I can do to reshape the landscape of how trans issues are viewed, how trans people are treated and more broadly, to promote a very simple idea – accepting people for who they are.”
Addressing Bruce’s past as an Olympic gold medallist, she said: “I trained hard. I competed hard. And for that people respected me, but this transition has been harder on me than anything I could have imagined and that is the case for so many others besides me.
“For that reason alone trans people deserve something vital, they deserve your respect. From that respect comes a more compassionate community, a more empathetic society and a better world for all of us.”