Caitlyn Jenner

Cynthia, this wasn't all just for a reality TV show and it's not a joke. I had met several transgender men and women, but I really started to understand them a few years ago when I attended a Transgender Day of Remembrance and heard their stories and saw their pain. I also got to see their joy when they were able to express themselves in the way they were most comfortable, in the way that matched the way they felt inside. It was then I realized that if I was expecting straight people to understand me when I told them about my experience as a gay man, a situation they had no experience with and no way to experience it for themselves, then I owed it to transgender people, an experience I have no way to understand directly myself, to believe them when they told me who they were and what their lives were like. It's not unlike when you tell me about your experience as an African-American and as a woman in American. Those are two things I can never experience directly myself, but when you tell me about it I'll believe you. And I won't think your experience is a joke. Maya Angelou said when someone tells us who they are, believe them. Caitlyn Jenner is telling us who she is. We owe it to her to believe her. Peace.