Will Caitlyn Jenner School Republicans on Trans Rights?
Meanwhile, Lindsey Graham recently offered this bizarre counter to Steve Deace’s argument that Republicans embracing Jenner will lose constituents’ support. “Here’s what I would say to the talk show hosts: In the eyes of radical Islam, they hate you as much as they hate Caitlyn Jenner,” Graham told CNN. “They hate us all because we won’t agree to their view of religion. So America, we are all in this together.”
At another point in the interview, Graham spoke more sensibly. “I haven’t walked in her shoes. I don’t have all the answers to the mysteries of life,” he said. “I can only imagine the torment that Bruce Jenner went through. I hope he’s – I hope she has found peace.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who’s rumored to be mulling a 2016 run, was asked by an ABC correspondent if he agrees with President Obama’s assessment of Jenner as courageous. “Well, I think it’s a personal decision,” he said.
Then there’s Mike Huckabee, who in February (before Jenner had publicly announced her plans to transition), said he would’ve liked to have “felt like a woman” in high school so he could “shower with the girls.” BuzzFeed also uncovered two other videos in which Huckabee made shower jokes referencing the 2013 California School Success and Opportunity Act, which granted transgender school students access to school facilities and activities matching their gender identity.
“I’m giving a commonsense answer to the insanity that’s going on out there,” Huckabee said earlier this month in defense of his comments.
Certainly, some Republicans pay more than lip service to the LGBT cause. In Florida, for example, Republican Sen. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is an outspoken supporter of her transgender son, and has already invited Jenner to her office via Twitter. Though Sen. Ros-Lehtinen voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, she went on to become the first Republican in Congress to co-sponsor the Respect for Marriage Act, which seeks to repeal DOMA. And in March, Ros-Lehtinen co-sponsored the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, designed to speed up the guardianship process for LGBT youth and ban discrimination against LGBT individuals seeking to adopt or foster children.
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There are also a handful of Republicans who have supported trans rights in states legislatures. A Connecticut bill allowing trans residents to change the gender on their birth certificate without undergoing so-called gender-reassignment surgery recently passed the state senate with bipartisan support (despite three GOP votes in opposition). And in December, Republican New Jersey State Sen. Diane B. Allen joined Democrat Joseph Vitale as co-sponsor of a piece of legislation just like Connecticut’s, a year after Republican Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a similar measure.
Ros-Lehtinen and the other Republicans who have voted in favor of trans rights remain outliers, to be sure. But the Log Cabin Republicans’ Gregory Angelo is hoping Jenner’s coming out will push more conservatives to embrace trans-inclusive legislation. Angelo has offered to introduce Jenner to prominent conservative lawmakers, and extended an invitation for her to be the keynote speaker at an event this fall.
Jenner’s agent tells Rolling Stone that he and Caitlyn “have had no discussion about [activism in the Republican party] at this time.” But given that Jenner seemed more than open to engage with the GOP in her 20/20 interview – and has been outspoken about her passion to help others – we shouldn’t rule out the possibility that Jenner will try to school the GOP in trans rights.
“We all need to be more tolerant of each other,” says the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition’s Nancy Nangeroni. “Maybe through Caitlyn we can find a little more common ground than we had in the past.”