Monday 16 November 2015

Husband of 9/11 hero cop returns his wife's "Woman of the Year" award after Glamour honors Caitlyn Jenner

Police officer Moira Smith was posthumously given the award in 2001Glamour magazine named Caitlyn Jenner a Woman of the Year

The widower of a hero female cop who died in 9/11 has returned his wife's Woman of the Year award after Glamour magazine gave the same honor to Caitlyn Jenner.

NYPD police officer Moira Smith was posthumously given the award in 2001 after she was killed helping to evacuate people out of Tower Two - saving scores of lives.

But her husband James, 53, was left furious after Glamour revealed last week that it was giving the award to transgender Jenner.

Mr Smith has now FedExed the 2001 Woman of Year Award back to the magazine with a scathing letter denouncing Glamour's decision as 'insulting' to the memory of his wife.

The retired officer said he'd originally been 'honored' to accept the award for his wife just a month after her death in 2001. He claimed awarding the Kardashian reality show star - who was formerly known as Bruce - 14 years later was a 'slap in the face to the memory of our hero'.

'I was shocked and saddened to learn that Glamour has just named Bruce Jenner "Woman of the Year",' Smith wrote.

'I find it insulting to Moira Smith's memory, and the memory of other heroic women who have earned this award.

'Was there no woman in America, or the rest of the world, more deserving than this man?

'At a time when we have women in the armed forces fighting and dying for our country, heroic doctors fighting deadly diseases, women police officers and firefighters putting their lives on the line for total strangers, brave women overcoming life threatening diseases. Is this the best you could do?'

Former Olympic track star Jenner, star of E!'s docu-series I Am Cait, received the Transgender Champion award at Glamour magazine's Women of the Year celebration in New York last week.

During her acceptance speech she thanked her supportive family and talked about the confusion and struggle she had felt about her gender.

'I've had many, many, many years of isolation of hiding from the world, lying to the world, of not being myself,' said the 66-year-old.

She also quoted French activist and writer, Simone de Beauvoir who said: 'You are not born woman. You become one' - 'Words I live by,' Jenner added.

Fellow awardees at Carnegie Hall included Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon, tennis star Billie Jean King and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham.

Jenner is the second transgender woman to receive the honor after Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox was recognized by Glamour in 2014.

A spokesman for the magazine told The NY Daily Post that it stood by its awardees.

'We were proud to honor his wife . . . in 2001, and we stand by our decision to honor Caitlyn Jenner,' a Glamour spokeswoman said. 'Glamour's Women of the Year Awards recognize women with a variety of backgrounds and experiences.'

Smith was given the award for her incredible bravery during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 which killed 3,000 people - the worst terrorist atrocity to happen on American soil.

Smith was one of 23 NYPD officers to die on 9/11 - and the department's only female cop to die in the attacks.

The mother-of-one was just 38 when she was killed, leaving behind her two-year-old daughter Patricia and husband James.

She was immortalized by an image showing her helping Edward Nicholls, an injured broker, from the South Tower of the World Trade Center on the day of the terror attacks.

Moira was one of the first to respond to the September 11 attack and rushed dozens to safety. She was returning to the South Tower to continue her rescue effort when the building collapsed - killing her.

Officer Smith was posthumously awarded the NYPD's Medal of Honor, the department's highest honor.

She was also listed among Glamour and Ms. magazines' Women of the Year for 2001 alongside Tahmeena Faryal of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan and Diane Sawyer, and named Woman of the Year by the NYPD's Policewomen's Endowment Association.

Born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, she began her police career in 1988 when she joined the New York City Transit Police Department before being assigned to Manhattan's 13th Precinct in 1997.

She was noted for her bravery throughout her career and was awarded the department's Distinguished Duty Medal for saving dozens of lives after a subway crash a decade before 9/11.

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