By Carolyn Solar |Staff Writer|
Reality television star and transgender woman Caitlyn Jenner has become increasingly vocal about her political ideologies during the 2016 presidential campaign.
This comes shortly after transitioning from male to female last year.
Unfortunately, these ideas have not resonated well with LGBT rights advocates.
Jenner has made a few choices since her transition that has people scratching their heads, including her recent decision to support a candidate that typically would not support her lifestyle choices.
Jenner offered to be a “trans ambassador” to U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.
Cruz has shown resistance to supporting equal rights for trans students in schools.
Allowing trans students to use restrooms as their identifying sex was an issue for Cruz, as he called it “lunacy” and stated that this was forcing little boys and little girls to shower together.
In fact, The Advocate, a LGBT publication, declared Cruz the “Phobie of the Year” for his opposition to same sex marriage and introducing a bill that would un-marry same sex couples upon entering a state without marriage equality.
Jenner chooses to support Cruz and would like to advise him because according to her, “he’s very conservative, and a great constitutionalist, and a very articulate man,” she said in an interview with The Advocate.
Democrats have shown more support towards minority groups, while typically, Republicans hold deep religious views that have not shown support for LGBT equality.
Jenner met Cruz before her transition and said he was nice and hoped he would be open to have her counsel him on trans issues if he goes on to be elected.
“I have all my girls on a trans issues board to advise him on making decisions when it comes to trans issues,” said Jenner in an interview with The Advocate.
In the past, Jenner has been criticized for her lack of support of many other LGBT issues, such as gay marriage.
Critics say her lack of understanding of the LGBT community stems from her status pre-transition as a successful, white, male, athlete and television star.
Some say her privilege and limited experience as a trans woman will not mirror issues that many trans people are faced with in their everyday lives.
Some students argue that Jenner is making a logical decision, although many advocates disagree.
“I think Jenner is supporting Cruz for his political ideas and not necessarily his deep religious views. She may not agree that his religious views are supportive of the LGBT community, but Jenner does have a large following and is probably one of the most widely recognized trans women in the media,” said student Danielle Eriksen.
“She would be able to get a message out to a large number of people and speak for them, because she is the most high-profile trans women in the public eye,” added Eriksen.
Other students have agreed that this decision might be beneficial for the trans community in the long run.
“Every candidate has one specific audience they want to target, for Hillary, it’s women, for Bernie, it’s students and the working class, for Trump, it’s kind of miscellaneous, but for Ted it is conservative Christians,” said student Jessica Winter.
“I think Cruz is doing what he can to target this audience specifically, but with that being said, that does not necessarily mean that Jenner agrees with all of his ideas. He also has a lot he wants to do to fix the economy and I know Jenner has spoken about making sure that all trans people have jobs,” added Winter.
Jenner’s offer to be trans ambassador is still just a proposition that Cruz has yet to respond to.
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