{"id":55910,"date":"2015-07-16T14:41:26","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T06:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=55910"},"modified":"2015-07-16T14:43:48","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T06:43:48","slug":"emotional-caitlyn-jenner-accepts-arthur-ashe-courage-award-at-espys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/07\/16\/emotional-caitlyn-jenner-accepts-arthur-ashe-courage-award-at-espys\/","title":{"rendered":"Emotional Caitlyn Jenner accepts Arthur Ashe Courage Award at ESPYs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/div>\n
View image<\/a> | gettyimages.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2013 Caitlyn Jenner accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs on Wednesday night while urging acceptance for others who are transgender.<\/p>\n

She received a standing ovation from some of the sporting world’s biggest stars after her 10-minute speech during the annual awards honouring the year’s top athletes and moments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis transition has been harder on me than anything I can imagine,\u201d said Jenner, who revealed she was in the process of becoming a woman in a televised interview with Diane Sawyer in April on ABC.<\/p>\n

From the stage, Jenner thanked Sawyer, whom she called a friend.<\/p>\n

Noting her powerful celebrity platform, the 1976 Olympic decathlon champion and current reality TV star vowed \u201cto do whatever I can to reshape the landscape of how transgender people are viewed and treated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abby Wambach of the U.S. soccer team that won the Women’s World Cup presented the trophy to Jenner, whose voice broke as she thanked members of her famous family, including stepdaughters Kim and Khloe Kardashian. Tears welled in the eyes of Jenner’s younger daughter, Kylie, whose sister, Kendall, wiped a tear from her eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never wanted to hurt anyone else, most of all my family and my kids,\u201d said Jenner, wiping her eye.<\/p>\n

She admitted that until earlier this year she had never met another transgender person.<\/p>\n

The 65-year-old told the audience about trans teenagers who are bullied, beaten up, murdered or kill themselves. Jenner mentioned two people by name whose deaths particularly touched her.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrans people deserve something vital, they deserve your respect,\u201d she said. \u201cFrom that respect comes a more compassionate community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenner urged the crowd that included football, basketball, baseball and hockey superstars to remember what they say and do is \u201cabsorbed and observed by millions of people, especially young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy plea for you tonight is one join me in making this one of your issues as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Many in the crowd watched intently as Jenner spoke with little reaction on their faces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to call me names, make jokes and doubt my intentions, go ahead because the reality is I can take it,\u201d she said. \u201cBut for thousands of kids out there coming to terms with the reality of who they are they shouldn’t have to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A video narrated by \u201cMad Men\u201d actor Jon Hamm traced Jenner’s life from the time when she was known as Bruce Jenner to her current transition. She mentioned she once considered ending her own life with a gun she owned.<\/p>\n

She was shown applying makeup, buttoning her blouse in her closet and fastening the strap on her heeled shoes.<\/p>\n

With her trembling hands clasped in front of her, Jenner joked with the audience about her struggle to select the cream gown she wore.<\/p>\n

\u201cOK girls, I get it,\u201d she said, as the audience laughed. \u201cYou to get the shoes, the hair, the makeup, it was exhausting. And the fashion police, please be kind on me. I’m new at this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenner didn’t walk the red carpet outside the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles, and she didn’t appear backstage to talk with reporters, as most of the previous Ashe award recipients have done. ESPN said Jenner wanted her onstage comments to stand.<\/p>\n

Reaction among Jenner’s sporting peers on the red carpet was mixed.<\/p>\n

Little League baseball pitcher Mo’ne Davis called Jenner brave.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe’s really brave to have the courage to get through a lot of those things,\u201d said the 14-year-old who won best breakthrough athlete. \u201cI know a lot of people give her a hard time about it but just for her family to give her that support is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield said, \u201cI just know that’s Bruce Jenner and I’ll leave it at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

RadarOnline.com reported Wednesday that Jenner’s representatives approached ESPN suggesting the network give her the Ashe award in exchange for plugs on her upcoming E! docuseries. ESPN and ABC are owned by Disney.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat rumour is completely false,\u201d ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said. \u201cThe Arthur Ashe Courage Award and ABC interview were never connected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenner’s publicist Alan Nierob called the report \u201cutterly false\u201d and had no further comment.<\/p>\n

Jenner’s selection to receive the Ashe award named for the late tennis player who died in 1993 after contracting AIDS from a blood transfusion generated strong debate online.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met Arthur Ashe a few times. I know how important education was to him,\u201d Jenner said. \u201cLearn as much as you can about another person to understand them as well as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Online critics said college basketball player Lauren Hill, who died of brain cancer in April, was deserving of the Ashe honour.<\/p>\n

But Hill’s mother, Lisa, attended the show and said her daughter would not have welcomed the controversy and made no judgment of others.<\/p>\n

Jenner’s series called \u201cI Am Cait\u201d debuts July 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

View image | gettyimages.com LOS ANGELES \u2013 Caitlyn Jenner accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs on Wednesday …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":55911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-55910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-original","post_format-post-format-image","mauthors-beth-harris","mauthors-the-associated-press1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}