Will Caitlyn Jenner School Republicans on Trans Rights?
In a 20/20 interview with Diane Sawyer this April, Caitlyn Jenner (then still going by Bruce) came out as transgender to a large, cross-generational audience, discussing her plans to transition and what it was like living as an Olympic superstar who the world saw as a man.
But what surprised some people more than Jenner’s gender identity was the revelation that she is a Republican. “Is that a bad thing?” Jenner playfully asked Sawyer. “I believe in the Constitution.”
In a voiceover, Sawyer told the audience that Jenner does not believe either political party has a “monopoly on understanding.” She then asked Jenner whether she would ever advocate for trans issues with conservative politicians like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner.
“I would do that in a heartbeat. Why not?” Jenner said. “And I think they’d be very receptive to it.”
At least one group of conservatives – the Log Cabin Republicans, who describe themselves as “the nation’s largest Republican organization dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives and allies” – is hoping Jenner’s political identity will help push more members of the GOP to support trans rights legislation.
“There are a number of Republicans that I think could stand to benefit from learning the personal stories of transgender individuals,” the group’s executive director, Gregory T. Angelo, tells Rolling Stone. “I think those stories have all the more ability to make a meaningful impact if they’re told by a transgender Republican, and an even more meaningful impact if told by transgender Republican Caitlyn Jenner.”
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, says Jenner’s coming out as both transgender and a Republican will be influential in two particular ways. “First, her public pronouncement about being a Republican could help some Americans understand that trans people are varied in every way everyone else is,” Keisling tells Rolling Stone. “More importantly, she is introducing more people to trans people and our lives, and that’s really how we influence society. That’s how we moved Democrats, and that’s how we will move Republicans.”
It remains to be seen whether this is wishful thinking. To be sure, trans people face bigotry from people of all political stripes, and from all sectors of society. But historically, the majority of Republican legislators who have voted on LGBT rights legislation have voted against such bills. And Republicans have been almost exclusively responsible for the dozens of anti-trans bills that have been introduced in states and cities around the country.
This year in Nevada, Minnesota, Florida, Kentucky and Texas, for example, Republican lawmakers introduced “bathroom security” bills forcing transgender people to use restrooms designating the gender they were assigned at birth, rather than the gender with which they identify. Collectively, these laws would criminalize the transgender population with misdemeanor charges that carry jail time and hefty fines, hold businesses responsible for allowing trans people to choose which restroom to use, and reward students with thousands of dollars for reporting transgender peers who use the “wrong” bathroom. None of these bills made it through the legislature.