It was Jan Morris who transformed the world for transgender people

THE ‘coming out’ of Caitlyn Jenner illustrated the power of mainstream media in a way we sometimes overlook, writes Terry Prone.

Newspapers, worldwide, are under pressure, but magazines in the US are doing nicely, thank you, and Vanity Fair showed just why last week. They got the story and, of even more importance, they got the picture. The picture of Caitlyn in the bustier, on the cover, was just one of a number also inside the magazine, but it’s the one that will be remembered and described, with teeth-grinding regularity, as ‘iconic’. Vanity Fair made sure, by comissioning photographic doyenne Annie Liebowitz to take it that it would carry the referred credibility of her name and reputation.