Vanity Fair
- Caitlyn Jenner Gets Arthur Ashe Courage Award
- Twitter Explodes with Anger
Caitlyn Jenner will receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award on July 15th at the ESPY’s in Los Angeles. The show will air on the ABC channel.
The Olympic medal-winning athlete and reality TV star formerly known as Bruce Jenner announced her new name to be Caitlyn Jenner on June 1st, 2015 as a part of her gender transition process.
She drew a lot of attention along with admiration and praise that day. The sports news network ESPN announced that Jenner was selected as the winner for the Arthur Ashe Courage Award on that same day and would be receiving her award on 15th July, 2015.
ESPN’s executive producer Maura Mandt spoke on why Jenner was the right choice for the award. She explained that Jenner received a lot of accolades for being one of the greatest Olympians of the time, but giving her the Ashe Award is for a totally different reason.
It is being given to her for her courage and bravery on embracing her hidden truth. She showed the courage to face the whole world with a different gender and a new identity. Her courage will help a lot of people to face the challenges they are facing, specially the transgender community.
At first people were supporting Caitlyn Jenner for her bravery, courage and her new identity. Everybody took to twitter to admire and support her for her decision to be herself. But ESPN’s decision for honoring her with the award made a lot of people mad.
Twitter exploded with hate comments. Fans are crying foul over the decision to choose Jenner for the award instead of a lot of people who ‘actually’ deserved it, like Mount St. Joseph basketball player Lauren Hill. Lauren Hill suffered from cancer but she battled courageously while staying on the university team. She lost her life waging the battle as a 19-year-old on 10th April.
Several fans took to twitter to complain about it.
@chase8543 said that it is an absolute disgrace to give Bruce (Caitlyn) Jenner the Arthur Ashe Courage Award over Lauren Hill.
@MooreMyles said that I’m outraged upon ESPN’s decision to give Caitlyn Jenner the Arthur Ashe Award. Lauren Hill indefinitely deserves it.
While some claimed that Lauren Hill was the deserving candidate, others wanted Army Veteran Noah Galloway to take the award home. Noah Galloway lost an arm and a leg to a roadside bomb blast in Iraq and now competes in Crossfit events and also competed in the 58 hours death race.
He also participated in ‘Dancing with the Stars’ this season and almost won. Hundreds of fans tweeted for him. They said that our country is screwed up for praising Jenner more than those who actually deserve the appreciation.
@AndrewwGuerrero made a very serious comment about the whole situation. He said that this Caitlyn Jenner crap makes me livid. There are people dying for our nation and we are worried about this fool.
ESPN explained to FOX411 that people are discussed every year and there was no better choice than Jenner. ESPN also provided a written statement which said Jenner was chosen “to help move forward a constructive dialogue about progress and acceptance.”
Some more twitter responses are given below:
Caitlyn Jenner gets the Arthur Ash courage award for coming out and the army veteran who lost his arm and leg who danced on DWS doesn’t?— Collin DeBranch (@collindebranch3) June 3, 2015
How screwed up is our country? “Caitlyn” Jenner is getting the Arthur ash award for courage at the espys. Let it sink in.— EP Martin (@epm311) June 3, 2015
So sad how “Caitlyn Jenner” wins the Arthur Ash award over a Veteran who lost an arm and a leg @espn #classy #sexchangeshappendaily— Hail〽️ (@awinzzzzzzz) June 3, 2015
If at @Caitlyn_Jenner wins the Arthur Ash courage award the @ESPYS Are more corrupt that @SeppBlatter— Will (@wkeresey97) June 3, 2015
The fact that espn decided “Caitlyn Jenner” is more deserving of the Arthur Ash award than Lauren Hill is beyond stupid. #LaurenHillESPY— -Jack Johnson (@Jack_Johnson32) June 3, 2015