Bruce Jenner is not a hero.  Yup, I said it out loud.  Boy oh boy the way people have been carrying on you would think the fella cured cancer or rescued Justin Bieber from a well.  Now I’m not trying to tear him down but let’s keep this in perspective here folks.  I know that transgender people have had a terrible time of it in the past but that is no reason to over inflate what was more than anything, just another publicity grab by another contemporary publicity whore.  Let’s also be honest, the 17 million people who tuned in, didn’t tune in to be supportive or to see what his surprise announcement would be.  They tuned in for the spectacle.  Because you see, Bruce Jenner’s announcement was about as surprising as the sun announcing that it is rising….after it has already risen.   But it is still “so brave” and “heroic” for him to announce this publicly.  NO IT IS NOT!

Let me start by saying that hero is the same word that we have used for people like Mandela.  Let me say that again, Mandela.  A man who was imprisoned for 27 years, became the first black president of South Africa (before American could elect a black President), helped an entire nation heal a horrible, gaping wound and inspired people of all colors around the world.  We are using that same word for an athlete who has left a trail of broken families and children behind him for decades and helped create the Kardashian nonsense that now plagues our national psyche for has publicly announcing that he is a woman.  People act like he is somehow separate and distinct from Kris/Kim et al. but let me tell you something, Bruce Jenner is not some helpless creature who has been taken advantage of by this gang of women.  He was and is a fully-grown adult and an Olympic champion – not exactly a shrinking violet.  He helped raise the Kardashian girls and totally raised the Kendall and Kylie disaster.  He is part and parcel of the whole thing.

As for being brave.  Are you kidding me?  I’m trying to imagine what on earth Bruce Jenner had to lose by sharing this information publicly with Diane Sawyer?  I realize that it must have been very difficult to tell his family – but the rest of us?  His only real risk is that people will say not very nice things about him online, which I mean, come on, is not exactly something that is new to him or his spawn.  In fact, he has figured out how to further monetize this experience by being clever enough not to let the audience see him dressed as a woman, but to save that for his reality show.  No one was offering him a reality show of his own when we thought he identified as a man, so yeah “brave” is really pushing it.  You know who IS brave?  The transgendered kid who comes out in nowheresville USA where he might actually be shunned by his community or beaten to death for it. You know who needs your support?  That kid in nowheresville USA.  NOT Bruce Jenner.

Finally, for anyone who thinks that Bruce is somehow above the vapid Kardashian clan, I call your attention to his comments on his former Olympic adversary, Nikolai Avilov saying with obvious glee that he is now “overweight and out of shape.”  So, here we have a person who is putting himself out there and asking to be accepted as who he is and not be judged on his appearance -  putting down a 65 year old man who has spent the past 40 years living in Russia, NOT Los Angeles for failing to be as fit and fabulous as Bruce himself.  He lost me right there.  

Listen, Bruce Jenner is entitled to his journey and entitled to be treated respectfully as he goes on that journey, but we can’t make right all the wrongs that have been inflicted on transgendered people by rallying behind this narcissistic egomaniac.  If you really want to support trans people, great! Put up some cash to the Trans Youth Equality Foundation or GLADD – not stupid tweets with #brucejenner #hero in them.  Tweets and hashtags aren't help.  And don’t be fooled people, you don’t know him, he doesn’t care about you.  He is one of them.  The call is coming from inside the house.