William Bruce Jenner, a former U.S. track and field athlete and husband to Kris Jenner who is mother to the star of the popular Keeping Up with the Kardashians TV show, Kim Kardashian, has just come out as a transgender woman.
In a two-hour special aired on ABC, Jenner, 65, sat down with Diane Sawyer and revealed what has been speculated by the public for months. But he shared another fact that sent waves through the political community, telling Sawyer he’s a Republican, too.
“For all intents and purposes, I’m a woman,” Jenner told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview that aired Friday in a special two-hour edition of ABC News’ “20/20.”
“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,” Jenner, 65, said. “That female side is part of me. That’s who I am.”
The conversation about his political stance began when Sawyer asked him his thoughts about Barack Obama becoming the first president to use the word “transgender” in his 2015 State of the Union.
“Did you cheer the president?” Sawyer asked Jenner.
“I will certainly give him credit for that,” Jenner responded. “But not to get political, I’ve just never been a big fan. I’m kind of more on the conservative side.”
“Are you Republican?” Sawyer asked.
“Yeah,” he said with a smile. “Is that a bad thing? I believe in the Constitution.”
He added that he’s thought about whether becoming a woman would be unsettling for the conservative wing of the Republican party, but told Sawyer that neither political party has a monopoly on “understanding.”
Jenner also said he would go to House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to help promote the LGBT cause.
Bruce Jenner is most known for his Olympian days and later his marriage to Kris Kardashian, making him the stepfather to Kim Kardashian and father to Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner. He re-entered the spotlight after becoming a regular on the family’s reality TV show “Keeping up with the Kardashians.”
