Okay. We need to sit down and have a chat about Caitlyn Jenner. This was not exactly a topic I wanted to bring up. I want to keep this kind of positive, but yeah, we need to talk.
For anybody who’s been living under a rock, Caitlyn Jenner first gained celebrity status in 1976 when she (living and presenting as male at the time) won the Gold medal for the US in the men’s decathlon.
After a period of celebrity as a sort of epitome of fitness and achievement, including, famously being a spokesperson for Wheaties breakfast cereal, Jenner went on to work in various fields including TV hosting and race car driving, but in 2015, she very publicly transitioned and starred in a TV series, “I am Cait” as well as on “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”.
I’ll leave it to the reader to look up her Wikipedia page and other resources for a deeper dive, except to say particularly: If you look at her Wikipedia page, you will see that she’s noted as possibly one of the most famous transgender women in the whole world.
Caitlyn is an active a member of (and apologist for) the Republican party. This is where things are a little problematic. It should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody that the Republican party has not exactly been an ally to the LGBTQ community. In fact, that’s probably the understatement of the year. The Republican party has been actively attacking trans rights and trans youth in the most aggressive manner as of late.
According to an April 9 2021 article in US News and World Report , over 28 States had bills or were considering bills with anti-trans language bills that ranged from trying to prevent trans youth from competing in sports and even to bills to outlaw treating trans youth for their trans issues by medical professionals.
The Republican party has not exactly made a secret of their opposition to marriage equality for LGBTQ people either. In short, this is a party that has declared war on the very existence and legitimacy of trans people and LGBTQIA+ people and identities.
I say this in all sincerity; I’m not trying to be political here.
This is not about politics. This is about basic human decency and human rights. Trans rights are human rights, and an entire major political party in this country is trying to eradicate us through legislation.
This is why I can’t really wrap my head around the idea that Caitlyn Jenner, a trans woman who purports to be a trans rights activist, would have anything to do with the Republican party, let alone to run as a governor in a state that has a huge transgender population.
Obviously I do not speak for the entire trans community. My opinions are that of one trans woman, but also Caitlyn Jenner does not speak for the entire trans community. She’s more than a little problematic, and many of us, I believe, share that opinion.
Now, with all of that being said, people who attack Caitlyn by misgendering her by calling her gender identity into question belittling her as a woman, because she is trans: That is unacceptable.
Also, apropos the aforementioned rock that people might have been living under: unless you’ve been living under that rock, you know, her dead name and everybody else knows her dead name. If you don’t you can go look it up in any number of locations including her Wikipedia page. Outside of specific documentation of historical facts there is simply no reason to refer to her with male pronouns or use her dead name. We absolutely don’t need every darn article written about her in the news to have to reference Caitlyn Jenner, “who used to be [DEADNAME] before she transitioned”. Just stop.
To those people who want to be good allies for the trans community. You’re not betraying us if you don’t support Caitlyn Jenner. A lot of us don’t support her either. She may have some positions on trans related issues that are not horrible, but I’m sorry. I’m going to judge her by the company she keeps. And that company has been historically horrible to LGBTQ and BIPOC communities.
This article was adapted from the transcript of my podcast, Transgressive, Season 1, Episode 2
