Caitlyn Jenner on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine. The transgender is invited to head Israel gay pride parade. Photo: Twitter.

JNS.org – Organizers for the upcoming Tel Aviv gay pride parade have invited Caitlyn Jenner to headline the event.

Jenner, a former Olympic men’s decathlon winner who previously went by the name Bruce, has drawn international headlines while becoming the de facto face of the transgendered movement for her recently announced transition to womanhood on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine.

“When I saw your interview with Diane Sawyer, I was amazed by your bravery and determination to live your life as you choose,” Yaniv Weizman, who holds the gay community portfolio on the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipal council, said in an invitation to Jenner to lead the parade, Yedioth Ahronoth reported. “The fact that you provided us an opportunity to smile and revealed the personal and complex process you went through, the difficulties that stood in your way, made you a source of inspiration for us in Tel Aviv.”

Jenner’s stepdaughter, Kim Kardashian, along with Kardashian’s husband Kanye West, visited Israel in April, when the celebrity couple baptized their daughter North at an Armenian church in Jerusalem.

Tel Aviv’s gay pride parade is the largest such event in the Middle East, a region where most countries brutally suppress gay and transgender rights. This year’s Tel Aviv parade, which will be held on June 12, will focus on transgendered people. Organizers are expecting around 180,000 people to attend the parade.