Today’s release of the Vanity Fair cover featuring Caitlyn Jenner has drawn some quick responses, with transgender advocates praising the cover featuring the former Bruce Jenner and ESPN announcing today that Jenner will be honored at the upcoming ESPY Awards.

The Los Angeles Times quotes Nick Adams, a spokesman for GLAAD who is transgender, saying: “We are having a larger national conversation about transgender issues, and by Caitlyn choosing to tell her story, she’s adding to that conversation. It is allowing Americans to feel like they know someone who is transgender and hopefully bringing a greater understanding about what it means to be a transgender person.”

The Times report adds: “Media portrayals of transgender people have an enormous effect on how Americans view them because most don’t know transgender people personally, Adams told The Times in April. While recent polls show that about 90% of Americans say they know someone who is lesbian, gay or bisexual, only 8% know someone who is transgender, according to GLAAD.”

The ESPY Awards, meanwhile, announced that they will honor Jenner with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. The awards, put on by ESPN, will be televised by ABC on July 15.

ABC Entertainment said in announcing the honor: “Almost 40 years ago, Bruce Jenner’s Olympic success came as a result of strengthening both his mind and body leading to his status as one of the world’s greatest athletes, but the decision to publicly come out as a transgender woman took a different kind of courage and acceptance of one’s self.”

Please click here for details about the ESPYs announcement.

You can click here to see a video about the Vanity Fair photo shoot.