We don’t need Caitlyn Jenner’s approval 
— and vice versa

Fewer celebs rustle the LGBT jimmies like Caitlyn Jenner. From praying with a noted anti-LGBT pastor in Houston to not believing in same-sex marriage and (I’m wincing as I type this) advising trans women to take note of their appearance and not “look like a man in a dress” because “it makes people uncomfortable,” there’s foot-in-mouth on tap with this woman. It’s safe to say that before I go forward, I understand that these (and other follies which can be easily found thanks to Google) are dreadfully uncouth things to do and say.

The outrage that’s ensued, however, has taken a similar path of uncouth (and patently, ironically offensive) behavior.

Let’s preface this with very notion that Caitlyn has said time and again that she doesn’t want to be anyone’s role model, and although she gets that she’s in the spotlight, this transition has (and always will be) her own — just as everyone’s transition is, celebrity or otherwise. Now, would it be nice if she adhered to a more obvious path of progressive politics and positive acquaintances? Perhaps. But that’s not anyone’s decision to make, so let’s keep our wits about us.

Now.

The derision that struck me initially was the “privilege” angle, in which we’re to believe that because Ms. Jenner has lots of money, she’s inherently unable to live the “true” transgender experience that frequently includes job- and homelessness. Understand, the statistics on the global trans experience are enough to make you sick and anyone who’d refute that is a damned fool. But that’s not, however, to say that unless you fall into the underprivileged category, you can’t know what it’s like to live your life as an out trans person. This indictment gives me the same feeling as seeing Facebook memes in which a Rubenesque cartoon declares, “REAL men like curves!” — as if to say that if an individual doesn’t follow a prescribed path on beauty, he or she isn’t worthy of being called “real.” Hogwash. What a way to discount a human being’s lived experience.

Is Ms. Jenner monied? Sure — thanks to her hard work, that is. Caitlyn grew up as one of four children being raised in an apartment and built herself into the Olympic powerhouse who was the pride of the USA for many years. Gold medals aren’t something you can buy. If anything’s a meritocracy, that’d be the Olympics. So because she’s able shop uptown and undergo surgical procedures doesn’t mean she isn’t a proper trans person — it just means she’s a rich one. Would that we all had the foresight to train our asses off and compete on a global level … or any number of ways we might’ve amassed a fortune.

But there’s a reason I bring up this misnomed “privilege” point. I recently read a particularly nasty tirade on a trans activists’ Facebook page in which an angry trans author declared she was going back to calling her Bruce. Whoa whoa whoa, there — that’s pretty low and something I’d expect to see on a Tea Party/GOP website. Bruce? Really? It’s a free country and all, but to “revoke her trans card” because she isn’t a trans activist is about the most hypocritical thing I can imagine. For all the enraging and improper misgendering that goes on out there, to add to it while calling yourself a trans activist is pretty shameful. So she’s a rich Republican with shitty friends. Yeah, it’s lame but it’s nothing new. That we’d shun a trans woman because she’s not exactly like us, well … no one need look any further than our own community for the real dissolution of brother- and sisterhood between us.

“I’m going to call her Bruce.” Wow. Who sounds like the Republican now?