Our Favorite Punching Bag

I know too many trans people like her, they vote with their pocketbook and not with their heart; Caitlyn Jenner is a lot smarter then when she transitioned. She sees the error in her in her beliefs.

Caitlyn Jenner on the Five-Year Anniversary of Her Transition: ‘I Have No Regrets’
People By Jason Sheeler
June 10, 2020

We first met Caitlyn Jenner five years ago this month. “Call Me Caitlyn,” she declared on the cover of Vanity Fair. Then she sat down with Diane Sawyer and later appeared on her own reality show, I Am Cait.

Jenner had transitioned at the age of 65, after a life spent battling gender dysphoria. She had compensated by overachieving — earning a gold medal and becoming an American icon in the process. Later, she became part of a culture-shifting reality show seen in more than 150 countries.  By the end of 2014, after divorcing her third wife Kris, Jenner was the target of relentless paparazzi coverage. Telephoto lenses chronicled her every move.

But Jenner says she first felt truly seen when she held her driver’s license photo in July of 2015. “It was so emotional,” Jenner, now 70, tells PEOPLE. “There I was. Caitlyn Marie Jenner. But then, I wondered, did Bruce deserve to be thrown away like this? He did a lot of good things. He raised 10 kids. But I wasn’t turning around.” Jenner pauses. “Bruce did just about everything he can do. He raised 10 kids. Now what does Caitlyn do?”

For most of us who have transitioned we know what it is like. My old self is still there but now I can express it openly and not have to hide a part of me. I never have forgotten my past and it isn’t thrown away, it is still part of me.

Now for politics…

But as a lifelong Republican, she held political views that didn’t match those of most in the LGBTQ community. She was uninvited to fundraisers she’d donated to.
[...]
“They said I’m ‘too controversial.’ And that hurt,” she says. “I think I had been wearing rose-colored glasses. I thought I could change the world. Now I know I can only try and change one person at a time.”

Jeff Olde, who co-created Jenner’s show I Am Cait and has defended her within the LGBTQ community, knows she’s made mistakes. “But what I respect about her today is that she’s willing to learn,” he says. “And learning can be painful.”

I am glad that she saw the light.

I know a number of conservative trans people and I don’t understand why they are that way, but some are my friends and we respect each other views.  Caitlyn was going to go to a trans conference that I go to in the fall and there were some trans people who said that they wouldn’t go if she was there.

I don’t subscribe to that view. We are all trans people and we all need help, and that is what conferences are for… support for one another.