Bill Berkowitz for BuzzFlash: With Trumpian Hypocrisy and Crass Opportunism, Caitlyn Jenner Tells Transgender Youth to F**k Off
May 10, 2021
Former Olympic Decathalon champion Caitlyn Jenner takes advantage of the ultimate in political opportunism and hypocrisy by opposing trans males competing in men’s sports (Alberto Frank)
By Bill Berkowitz
In 2015, after Caitlyn Jenner publicly came out as a transgender woman, she accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPY’s, saying: “I also want to acknowledge all the young trans athletes who are out there – given the chancer to play sports as who they really are.” Now, Jenner is singing a different tune since tossing her hat into the ring in the race for Governor of California -- should the recall of Governor Gavin Newsome succeed -- telling Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity that she is opposed to transgender girls competing in women’s sports.
Mother Jones’ Lil Kalish recently reported: “In an interview with TMZ, when Jenner was asked her opinion on ‘biological boys’ participating in school sports, she responded that it was it ‘is a question of fairness.’ ‘That’s why I oppose biological boys who are trans from competing in girls sports in school,’ she continued. ‘It just isn’t fair. We have to protect girl’s sports in our schools.’”
While being one of the most recognizable trans figures in the U.S., as Kalish states, the 71-year-old Jenner is not a trans activist: “She is a trans person; her coming out became symbolic of wider acceptance for trans people. But activism requires moving beyond oneself to the larger needs of those with you in a struggle. Jenner at times seems uninterested in this.”
Equality California, an LGBTQ civil rights organization, accused Jenner of being willing to "sacrifice the health & well-being" of transgender kids to win votes.
Rosemary Ketchum, a councilwoman from Wheeling and West Virginia’s first transgender elected official and a national voice on LGBTQ-related political issues after being elected, said: “It is a complex issue, because she is such an available and clear trans figure. Not many transgender folks or allies agree with her take on that issue. And from what I’ve read, I don’t think she’s gone into particular reasons why she thinks that’s wrong. My — somewhat — belief is that this is a political play on her part.”
Trans actress Eileen Noonan tweeted: "I think it's a cynical strategy to appeal to the Trump base. They love minority avatars willing to betray their own communities. It's a divided field, she only needs a plurality to win in a CA recall, and she is willing to betray trans children."
Pursuing their culture wars agenda, Republican controlled state legislatures have passed a wave of anti-trans bills during the past year. According to Mother Jones’ Kalish, “Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia have all passed bills banning trans girls from playing on girl’s sports teams. Meanwhile, Arkansas became the first state in the country to outlaw doctors from providing hormone replacement therapy or puberty blockers to trans youth under the age of 18.”
In Jenner’s interview with Hannity, she complained about homeless people, praised Donald Trump, saying she liked the way he “shook up the system” – although there were “some things I didn’t agree with” -- supported Trump’s border wall, and was opposed to everything President Joe Biden has done this year.
As Politico’s Jack Shafer wrote: “With former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale advising Jenner in the race, it’s easy to imagine a well-financed political campaign, and candidates can throw campaign money at election-night celebrations and other events; attorney fees; cars, computers, meals and gifts. They can buy gratitude by donating to other candidates and charities; they can cover employee salaries, health care and meals and travel for the candidate and staff, as long it conforms to IRS regulations. It’s a real money-go-round.”
According to Politico, Dan Newman, a Gavin Newsom campaign spokesperson, “[claimed] the most revealing moment in Jenner’s interview — and the ones that will haunt her even more in coming months — was her embrace of the former president who remains historically unpopular with California voters. ‘When you say that you oppose every single thing that Joe Biden is doing and believes in — stimulus payments, accelerating the vaccine, infrastructure improvements, support for schools, just across the board — it really makes it clear that this [recall] is all Trump.’"
Among Trump’s most opportunistic and vicious attacks have been those on (still nascent) transgender rights.
On his ABC late night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel, tore into Jenner: ““Is it transphobic to call a trans person an ignorant a-hole? Or does calling that trans person an ignorant a-hole—even though she happens to be a trans person—show that we don’t discriminate against ignorant a-holes, no matter their gender orientation? It’s a tough one. I don’t know, I guess we’ll let the Internet decide tomorrow.”
As the San Francisco Chronicle’s Ann Killion recently wrote that Jenner, who won an Olympic Gold Medal in 1976 in the decathlon as Bruce Jenner, “is full of hypocrisies. If hypocrisy were a 10-event sport, she’d be the gold medal decathlon winner.”
Killion calls out Jenner’s hypocrisy. When playing in golf tournaments, Jenner hits from women’s tees, “[b]ut now she’s saying that kind of experience should be available only to those who wait 65 years to transition, like herself? That transgender kids can’t experience the redemptive and fulfilling power of athletics?”
Back in 2015, Jenner said: “If there’s one thing I do know about my life, it is the power of the spotlight. I know I’m clear with my responsibility going forward, to tell my story the right way, for me, to keep learning, to reshape the landscape of how trans issues are viewed, how trans people are treated.”
It may just be that the “power in the spotlight” is what Jenner’s campaign is really all about. While one doesn’t want to write her off as a candidate – after all, few believed Donald Trump would win the GOP’s presidential nomination let alone the presidency – being in the race increases her name recognition, which could result in a financial windfall. Perhaps a hosting slot on Fox News, a book deal, public speaking gigs, a “Keeping up with Caitlyn Jenner” reality television series.
Since its inception, the Arthur Ashe Courage Award has been given to such icons as Billie Jean King, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, Nelson Mandela, and Bill Russell. It is doubtful that Jenner’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award will be rescinded. Nevertheless, if Ashe were still alive, he would almost certainly denounce Jenner’s self-serving, anti-human rights political comments.
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