Caitlyn Jenner has apologized for comments she made in a recent TIME interview that many people found hurtful and offensive. “It is important for me to try to project a good image for this community,” Jenner stated. When asked to clarify what that meant, the former Olympian said: “I think it’s much easier for a trans woman or a trans man who authentically kind of looks and plays the role. So what I call my presentation. I try to take that seriously. I think it puts people at ease. If you’re out there and, to be honest with you, if you look like a man in a dress, it makes people uncomfortable. So the first thing I can do is try to present myself well.” Many in the trans community and beyond spoke out against these comments, calling them transphobic.
Caitlyn Jenner being transphobic is absolute trash and a good reminder that you can be in the LGBTQIA community and still promote hate
— Panic! at the Campus (@literElly) December 13, 2015
Yesterday evening, Jenner took to her WhoSay column and penned a personal essay titled “Still so Much to Learn.” “I think I caused a lot of hurt with this comment, and I’m truly sorry. What I was trying to say is that our world really is still a binary one, and that people who look ‘visibly transgender’ sometimes can struggle for acceptance and may be treated poorly by others. And while this may be true, it’s also something that needs to change”.
Echoing the voices of her critics, Jenner explains that, “Some people look gender non-conforming because they want to look that way — they don’t want to conform to society’s expectations. Those people have every right to look and present exactly as they choose. And then there are other people who don’t have the resources to access the medical procedures that would help them look the way they would like to look. Procedures, incidentally, that most health insurance plans refuse to cover. All of these people are my brothers and my sisters, and I am fighting alongside them, too,” she writes in the column.
“My comments probably made it seem like all I care about is fashion, or makeup, or appearance. I can tell you I really enjoy all of that — it’s who I am. It’s the world I come from, and as a person in the media I have certain expectations for myself,” she continues, adding, “But I am only one person. There are a lot of ways of being trans. And I want to help create a world in which people are able to express their gender in any way that is true and authentic for them. And most importantly — a world in which how a trans person is treated isn’t dependent on how they look”.
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Image via @caitlynjenner