News Digest

‘I am a woman’: Olympic champion Bruce Jenner reveals gender transition

Former Olympic champion Bruce Jenner says that “for all intents and purposes, I am a woman." Jenner spoke in a long-awaited interview televised Friday with ABC’s Diane Sawyer about his gender identity, saying that he has always been confused about his gender identity. Early in the interview, Jenner took out his ponytail to let his long hair flow behind him. "My brain is more female than it is male,” he said.

People look at me differently. They see you as this 'macho male,’ but my heart and my soul and everything that I do in life, it is part of me. That female side is part of me. It’s who I am.

Bruce Jenner

The 1976 Olympic decathlon champion has been better known in recent years as part of television’s omnipresent Kardashian family. The 65 year-old is a dad of six, and also has four step-children with Kris Jenner, who he was married to for over 22 years until last December. The family have reportedly rallied around him, with all of the kids still calling him dad. Bruce is apparently not ready to reveal the female name he’d like to go by just yet. Jenner, who fought back tears during the interview said it was hard for him to talk about his gender issues because he didn’t want to disappoint people.

As of now, I have all the male parts and all that kind of stuff. So, in a lot of ways, we’re different, OK, but we still identify as female. And that’s very hard for Bruce Jenner to say. Because, why? I don’t want to disappoint people.

Bruce Jenner