Trans Jenner
Caitlyn Jenner
  • Author: 
  • & By: 
    Sasha Rochelle Ogata
  • July 2, 2015 - 2:01pm
  • Comments

Caitlyn Jenner has been in the public’s eye since becoming a gold medal winner in the 1976 Olympics – then as Bruce. Decades later she would go on to gain a whole new fanbase as a member of the Kardashian clan. Now after revealing she identifies as female, Jenner has become the talk of the nation.

In light of Jenner recently completing her gender transition and coming out publicly with her story, we asked members of Vegas’ LGBT community to share their thoughts. What follows below is a letter from Sasha Rochelle Ogata.

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“Hey faggot!” “You’re not a girl!” “You’re a sissy boy!”

That is what was said to me almost everyday while I was growing up back in the ‘80s.

I think it's wonderful that Caitlyn Jenner is getting all this support from social media, celebrities, and her family. This is not the norm for most transgender people.

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As a transgender woman, I was always perceived as gay, called a faggot, homo, and other very mean terms, this from strangers, friends, and also family members.

As a transgender woman it is hard to find a job, housing, and medical care. Caitlyn Jenner is white, famous, and a millionaire. She's able to get the best doctors and psychiatrists, and has people around her to help her. “Normal” transgender people do not have this kind of support around them, nor do they have the resources to accomplish what she has done in the last few years. With some trans people it could take years.

I think it's great that Caitlyn is opening up the public's eye to the transgender identity, but she needs to be more realistic about the situation for the majority of trans people – we are not rich. We are not famous.

Also, for a trans woman, she still has the mannerisms of a man. She needs to sit more like a lady. I've noticed in some of her photos she still sits like Bruce. Maybe she needs some female etiquette classes, or to hang out with real transgender women and live her life as a transgender woman.

She has been living as a man for all these years and then all of a sudden, in just the last few months, now she's a woman. I DON’T THINK SO! She hasn't lived one straight year as a transgender woman.

I'm happy for her and the choices she is finally making for her life, but this is not the norm for most transgender people.

- Sasha Rochelle Ogata