Caitlyn Jenner, the Olympian turned reality show celebrity who announced her bid for California governor last month, declared her first policy position Saturday, and it is squarely in-line with her Republican base. The most famous transgender athlete in the world is opposed to transgender girls playing sports according to their gender identity.
“It’s an issue of fairness,” Jenner tweeted, “and we need to protect girls’ sports in our schools.”
Jenner tweeted a story by TMZ, which she said approached her on her morning coffee run Saturday. The transphobic headline screamed: “If You're a Biological Boy ... YOU SHOULDN'T BE IN GIRLS' SPORTS.”
Misgendering trans girls as “biological boys” isn’t just the fault of the gossip site, however; In the video showing Jenner putting her Black labrador retriever Baxter into the back of her Cadillac SUV before answering a question about the issue, the GOP hopeful told TMZ: “This is a question of fairness. That’s why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sports in school. It just isn’t fair. And we have to protect girls’ sports in our schools.”
Although the TMZ videographer tried to ask a follow-up question about bans on trans athletes delegitimizing the identity of those who transition, Jenner cut him off and turned her back to slip inside her $75K Escalade.
This position Jenner has staked out comes amid months of anti-transgender legislation in more than 30 states nationwide, with seven states already enacting laws banning trans female student-athletes; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vows to sign the eighth such ban soon. One state where there is no ban, pending or otherwise: California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom faces a recall vote this fall.
Jenner’s comments on Saturday stand in stark contrast to words she said on the Outsports podcast, The Trans Sporter Room, in April 2020:
“I think every trans person, if they’re into athletics, should have an opportunity to compete and to improve themselves. I think sports is such a great way to learn a lot about yourself. And yeah, I want to, hopefully they’ll have the opportunity in the future to do whatever they can do. I’m all for it. I’m all for it.”
But that wasn’t her only flip-flop. Jenner also said, “Politics is something I don’t talk about any longer.”
One of the most powerful trans women in Hollywood, writer, producer and actor Jen Richards, was once a co-star on Jenner’s reality show, I Am Cait, and will soon be seen on the serial crime drama Clarice on CBS. She tweeted Saturday that she has not commented on the 71-year-old “for years.” But in response to Jenner’s statements, Richards lashed out, then later deleted the thread, noting that she wrote it in anger and did not mean to be cruel, and was alerted that her words could be construed as ableist. Other former co-stars had even stronger things to say.
There was also this response from actress Trace Lysette, who was an executive producer on the documentary Trans in Trumpland:
Other prominent voices in the trans community joined Lysette and Richards in refuting Jenner’s position, and even calling her out as “anti-trans.”
Trans athletes also weighed-in. Fallon Fox was the first out trans mixed martial arts competitor and is the subject of a film about her life, now in production:
Out trans powerlifter JayCee Cooper responded to a tweet quoting Jenner advocating for trans youth in 2020, calling her “a horrible human being:”
Trans actress Eileen Noonan offered her view: “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.
In August 2015, Jenner, her I Am Cait costar Candis Cayne and out trans man Chaz Bono visited trans children at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles' Center for Transyouth Health and Development. They met with trans youth and their families taking part in the Transforming Family support group... and of course, brought along their TV cameras.
Jenner posed for pictures with the kids, and as Refinery29 reported, talked with Bono for the first time since transitioning. Bono is soon to star in the comedy Reboot Camp, and has worked with the center since 2009 as a member of their advisory board. So is GLAAD’s director of transgender representation, Nick Adams.
"Caitlyn Jenner's decision to use her series to spotlight groups which provide support and resources to transgender people is very important," Adams told Refinery29 in 2015. "We hope that viewers at home who see the love and acceptance the trans kids in our group receive will want to learn more about how they can support the trans people in their own families, schools, workplaces, and communities."
What Jenner is doing to win Republican votes is turning her back on each and every one of those young people, every transgender youngster in America, not just those who want to compete in sports, say advocates for trans youth.
“Parents of trans youth appreciate and value trans elders who can be possibility models for our kids,” wrote Debi Jackson, the mother of a trans girl whose face adorned the cover of National Geographic magazine in 2016, and the founder of Gender Inc. “When Caitlyn first transitioned, it was wonderful to hear her say that she’s known she was trans since childhood. It was validating. But it’s disappointing and disheartening that she’s comparing her unaffirmed life and experiences with youth who are affirmed today. More than that, she is a danger to our kids by helping perpetuate the rampant misinformation about them. She needs to stop talking. Immediately.”
Following stints on a British jungle survivor reality show and The Masked Singer, once again, Jenner is getting what she apparently craves: attention. But it’s from right wing media outlets like Breitbart and their ilk, and social media support from those opposed to trans inclusion in sports. And yet, even in taking their side for whatever goal Jenner has — more fame, fortune or actual political ambition — perhaps the most likely outcome is that her candidacy will propagate and foster even more outright, unabashed and open transphobia.
I am an award-winning journalist, a TV correspondent on CT Voice OutLoud on WTNH-TV and host of the “RiseUP With Dawn Ennis” talk show. I was America's
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