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Caitlyn Jenner's biographer says Donald Trump's supporters make it 'f**king hard' to be different in America

Buzz Bissinger opened up exclusisively to 'The Independent' about transitioning, cross-dressing and working as journalist

Andrew Buncombe
New York
Friday 18 March 2016 13:56 EDT
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Caitlyn Jenner accepts her Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPY awards
Caitlyn Jenner accepts her Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPY awards (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

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Caitlyn Jenner’s biographer has blamed the supporters of Donald Trump for making it “f**king hard” to be different in the United States.

Buzz Bissinger, a veteran journalist and writer who is working with Ms Jenner on an authorised account of her life, said his story would offer a window into the pain and anguish she struggled with before taking the decision last year to become a woman. The book is expected to be published in the spring of 2017.

In an interview with The Independent, he said the vast majority of people had no idea the challenges faced by people deciding to transition and how they were forced to spend each day living as “a fraud”. While Ms Jenner was wealthy and well connected, it was especially hard for her because of who she was prior to transitioning - the Olympic star Bruce Jenner, an all American hero.

Buzz Bissinger said Ms Jenner had an important and powerful story to tell
Buzz Bissinger said Ms Jenner had an important and powerful story to tell (Getty)

Mr Bissinger, a married father who also enjoys dressing as a woman, said he could relate to some of what Ms Jenner experienced because he himself was not “conventional”.

“Being different in America is really f**king hard. It is a very judgmental society,” he said, speaking from Washington State.

“The scariest thing about Donald Trump, in a sense is not Donald Trump, because I find him kind of amusing in some bizarre way. It’s the 35 per cent who support him, who hate Mexicans, and hate Muslims…and I think his supporters also hate Jews, I think they hate blacks, and that is a big swathe of this country.”

He said the reaction to Ms Jenner’s decision to transition had been remarkably positive. He said she had had shown him letters from people who said they had been inspired by her decision.

Leibovitz shot the first images of Jenner as a transgender woman for Vanity Fair (AFP/Getty)
Leibovitz shot the first images of Jenner as a transgender woman for Vanity Fair (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

“[She received] letters saying ‘you’ve helped make a difficult decision in my life and I’m a lot happier. I was thinking about suicide before I saw what you did and you’ve been a great inspiration’,” he added.

Mr Bissinger, whose 1990 best-selling, first book Friday Night Lights, about high school football in Texas was made in a movie and television series, said he had been asked to do a book after he worked with Ms Jenner on a long article for Vanity Fair last summer.

He said he had given the proposal careful consideration as, in his experience, such books were tricky. Yet, he said he believed in both Ms Jenner’s determination to tell her story, and the power of the narrative she had to reveal.

“She has a real story to tell that has not been told, especially with the pain and struggle,” he said. “It’s an incredible story. And let’s face it, a bizarre story. If you could pick anyone in the world who would be the least likely to transition into a woman it would have been Bruce Jenner.”

Ms Jenner, who recently sparked controversy by saying Mr Trump would be "very good" for women, revealed that she had transitioned in the Vanity Fair article last summer. It featured a front page photograph, by Annie Lebowitz, of her wearing a dress Vera Wang.

She told Mr Bissinger: “If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, ‘You just blew your entire life’.”

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