Let’s All Just Ignore Caitlyn Jenner from Now On

Caitlyn Jenner is as dumb as a post. You may recall that she is the transgender woman who started life as Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner, then found new fame as a Kardashian adjutant, then announced that she is transgender and made quite a splash with her transition from male to female.

Being transgender in our society is enormously difficult, as we know from the number of transgender women, especially women of color, who get murdered on a regular basis. Why anyone else’s gender identity matters at all to anyone other than the person her/himself and anyone who is very closely related, in whatever fashion, to that person, is not at all clear, but our Christian society is weirdly obsessed with the issue, or non issue, as the case should be.

You may recall in 2016 that the good Christian Republicans in the legislature of North Carolina thought they saw an easy opportunity to score some cheap points in the culture war with a statute prohibiting municipalities from enacting local ordinances for the purpose of protecting the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons, and required any transgender person who used a restroom in a state facility to use the room that corresponded to the sex that appeared on their birth certificate (don’t even try to think about what fun it would have been to try to enforce that gem).

The good news is that the backlash against the North Carolina law, both within the state and without, was swift and harsh. Outside observers estimated the cost to the state at $3.7 billion.

Also in 2016, Caitlyn Jenner, resting on her celebutante laurels, became the de facto spokesmodel for all transgender persons in the United States. Never mind that being rich and famous had made it far easier for her to undergo a complete transition. Never mind that Laverne Cox is another transgender woman, an African American, who gained her fame for work she has done during the current century and has a much more authentic experience as a transgender woman.

No, instead we had to endure such stupidity as Caitlyn stating, during the Republican presidential primary, that she wanted to serve as the “trans ambassador” to Ted Cruz, when Cruz was still a viable candidate for president. Huh? There is no good reason at all to think that Cruz would have wanted or recognized a “trans ambassador” had he won the presidency. This is just stupid.

Jenner had already explained to the world that she is a Republican, in somewhat the same vein as Ronald Reagan — a rich celebrity who just wants to pay lower taxes. She is good at spouting shop-worn Republican nonsense. It sounds just as nonsensical coming from her as it does from any other Republican. She attended Trump’s inauguration, saying she thought she could work with Trump to improve the lot of transgender persons in the United States.

Um, whoops.

Even Caitlyn can figure out that the new proposal to define “gender” solely in terms of sex as indicated on one’s original birth certificate is really bad news, a cheap attempt to pretend that transgender persons do not exist by federal fiat. The news coverage likely helped. Apparently she can at least read.

She gets a point or two for now realizing how wrong she was about Trump, but only one or two, since how horrible Trump would be as a president was blindingly obvious to any thinking person before he even announced.

It’s worth noting that one can at least infer from her sudden volte face that she did not much mind when Trump said most Mexicans are murderers and rapists, or when he suggested banning all Muslims from the country. She obviously lacks any understanding of the history and logic of civil rights in the United States, including the important principle that an injury to one is an injury to all. I guess she’s just too self-absorbed.

So there is no good reason to think that Caitlyn will make the connection and realize that the problem with Trump is not just Trump himself, but a Republican Party that is implacably hostile to all LGBT persons and shows no signs of changing. Maybe Caitlyn is okay being a member of a Party that would rather she did not exist at all.

Most of us, LGBT or just intelligent, thinking people, wish Caitlyn would sit down and shut up. Forever.