Hey ESPN, Caitlyn Jenner is No Arthur Ashe and You Know It

Bruce Jenner, former Olympic athlete most likely more widely known as a “reality” show star, transitions to a woman and is immediately awarded The ESPYS’ Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. Twitter goes wild and suggests Lauren Hill (or Noah Galloway, OJ Brigance or many others) would be more appropriate, and guess what? This time the Twitterverse has it right (well, not the hater tweets bashing transgenders).

3 Reasons Why Caitlyn Jenner Doesn’t Deserve the Courage Award

1. She Doesn’t Meet The ESPYS’ Own Criteria:

Here’s ESPN’s explanation of why they chose Jenner:

To quote a Sesame Street song, “One of these things is not like the other.”

In a shorter version of the criteria, they say “The award is given yearly to an individual whose contributions transcend sports.” That brings us to reason number two.

2. Caitlyn Jenner Has Contributed Very Little…So Far

What contributions has Caitlyn Jenner made? This year, Jenner was preparing her family and herself for the transition to female. And this month, she just made her formal transition to Caitlyn official — physically and publicly. Even ESPN executive producer Maura Mandt admitted Jenner is only now embarking on her journey.

Pretty much everything Jenner has said about her transition has been about herself and her family, which is exactly how it should be. This transition is huge. She has to steady herself and her family before she starts giving more of herself to others. So, it has yet to be seen if she will contribute more to the discussion and to transgender advocacy (or whatever cause she chooses). For now, she went public with her story because she had to — it was time and she couldn’t move forward without doing so.

I hope Jenner does decide to use her fame to further righteous causes that affect humanity, and maybe in a year or so, she would be a more appropriate choice for the award — just not yet.

Arthur Ashe, the namesake of the award wasn’t considered courageous because he had AIDS. He was courageous because of the way he lived his life, both before and after he was diagnosed. As the criteria states, he used his fame and stature to advocate for human rights and never backed away from a difficult issue. Does that sound like Jenner right now? No, or more hopefully, not yet.

3. To Award Courage Implies Much Risk Was Taken

Is Jenner courageous for finally making this transition and living as her true self. Absolutely. There was probably much personal risk. Jenner didn’t know how her kids would take the news and that’s pretty scary. And undergoing the physical changes takes courage too. I’m not convinced, however, there was great public risk. Sure, Jenner as a public figure is subject to the hating and hazing of close-minded folks, certain news media (ahem, FOX) and online trolls. But Jenner has also worked most recently as a reality TV star in which any attention is good attention. In fact, Jenner’s earning opportunity just INCREASED because of her position before and the exposure and interest now. She reportedly already has a new show coming on E! in July.

Compared to other transgenders who want to live their true lives at a young age and don’t have the support of family or those who don’t have access to famous photographers, interviewers and friends to gain support on a wider basis, and don’t have money to support themselves when their parents disown them or money to make the physical changes and still live strong as the gender they know they are despite what their body tells the world…well, do I even have to complete that thought? To me, those kids and adults exhibit more courage than we’ve seen so far from Jenner.

There’s also the matter of the car accident Jenner allegedly caused earlier this year which killed another driver. Even though most reports suggest Jenner is at fault, the fatal crash is still under investigation. If Jenner did cause the wreck and had award-worthy courage, wouldn’t she admit it? It would also take courage for Jenner to recuse herself from the award and insist it go to someone more worthy.

Of course, it’s not her fault she’s nominated. ESPN should have considered the families involved in the accident before they decided to extol Jenner so publicly. They should have considered their own award criteria more closely. ESPN will clearly not be receiving any integrity awards now that they’ve contradicted the spirit and namesake of The Arthur Ashe Courage Award for ratings. Yes, ratings. If this weren’t a ploy for ratings, they’d have waited a year to see what Caitlyn Jenner’s new journey would entail. Maybe we can give ESPN the Courage Award if they come out and admit that.