Caitlyn Jenner will receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the upcoming ESPY Awards in recognition of her coming out as a transgender woman.
And despite what Twitter users are saying, there wasn’t a runner up.
On the same day Jenner’s Vanity Fair issue was released, the ESPYs announced Monday that Jenner would be honoured with the award during the July 15 ceremony.
While most people applauded the decision to award Jenner – others were upset, and a rumour that Jenner beat out Noah Galloway, an Iraq war veteran who lost his arm and his left leg to a roadside bomb, and now competes in obstacle courses, distance running, and placed third in Dancing with the Stars.
The tweet was originally sent out by Boston Herald columnist and radio host Gerry Callahan shortly after the announcement on Monday.
There was no runner up, something which ESPN confirmed to multiple news outlets including Boston.com, The Washington Post and MTV. ESPN later published a statement saying “at all times, there are many worthy candidates.”
“This year, we are proud to honor Caitlyn Jenner embracing her identity and doing so in a public way to help move forward a constructive dialogue about progress and acceptance.”
Callahan told Boston.com that he meant the tweet sarcastically, which “anyone who knows me, my radio show or my history on Twitter knows.”
But the tweet caught fire when it was sent out by @MilitaryUSA, an unofficial, pro-military account with 189,000 followers that consistently tweets images glorifying the American military.
That tweet was favourited over 43,000 times – and even caught the attention of Tory MP Rick Dykstra who was one of the over 52,000 people who retweeted it.
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