SACRAMENTO — Bamby Salcedo, a transgender organizer from Los Angeles, was incensed by the words she heard coming out of Caitlyn Jenner’s mouth. Still, she couldn’t resist watching the TV screen.
It was Jenner’s first big interview since declaring her candidacy for California governor in the recall election against Gavin Newsom, and the transgender icon had chosen to speak with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Jenner, a former athlete and Olympic gold medalist, defended her opposition to trans girls competing in girls’ sports at school and dismissed her transgender critics with three words: “I move on.” Speaking about the state’s growing homelessness crisis, she mentioned that a fed-up friend with a private airplane hangar next to her own is moving out of California.
Then, with tears in her eyes, Jenner ended the interview by telling Hannity that she had gained a new feeling of authenticity since publicly coming out as transgender six years ago.
For Salcedo, the interview captured everything that she’s always found problematic about the most famous transgender woman in America.
“She’s completely detached,” said Salcedo, president of the TransLatin@ Coalition, an advocacy group. “All this truly is about her. It’s not about the issues, not about the people.”
That sentiment is common among transgender advocates and politicians, who say Jenner’s views as well as her longtime affiliation as a Republican, divide her from much of the trans community. Her praise of former President Donald Trump and her stance on youth sports, they say, show an inability, or unwillingness, to empathize with the struggles of those who don’t share her wealth and stardom.
Christine Hallquist, a transgender woman who rose to national prominence as the Democratic nominee for Vermont governor in 2018, said Jenner’s comments reveal how little she grasps the everyday challenges faced by those in the community for which she’s become a symbol.
“Unfortunately, because of her background and reputation, she has become the figurehead we don’t want,” Hallquist said. “She hasn’t really done anything to raise the voices of those who can’t speak for themselves.”
A spokesperson for Jenner’s campaign called it a “sign of unbelievable progress for the community” that a transgender woman could become governor of the largest state. “That is something Californians and everyone in the movement can be proud of,” the spokesperson said in an email. The campaign did not respond further to criticism from transgender leaders.
The LGBTQ community has long been ambivalent about Jenner. On one hand, she has helped educate millions of people about transgender issues since revealing her identity with a pin-up style spread on the cover of “Vanity Fair.” Yet her glamorous lifestyle and reality-TV roles in “I Am Cait” and “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” have set her apart from everyday voters and grassroots advocates.
Those tensions have been inflamed as Jenner reenters the national spotlight with her campaign to oust Newsom in a recall election expected this fall.
Aria Sa’id, executive director of the Transgender Cultural District in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, said Jenner doesn’t seem to care much about the issues that disproportionately affect many transgender people: widespread homelessness and poverty, discrimination in the workplace and housing, violence and sexual assault and criminalization due to sex work.
“It’s beyond privilege,” Sa’id said. “She’s protected in her upscale mansion in Malibu, with her over $100 million net worth. Caitlyn lives in a bubble and represents people who live in that bubble, people who feel inconvenienced by the social issues we see.”
Trans advocates such as Aria Sa’id say Jenner doesn’t understand the community’s concerns. Pictured here, (L-R): Ivory Smith, Jupiter Peraza, Sa’id, Juniper Yun and Iris Vara of Compton's Transgender Cultural District, in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday, May 18, 2021.
Stephen Lam/The ChronicleOne in five transgender people has been homeless at some point in their lives, largely due to discrimination or rejection from their families, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Transgender people are also disproportionately the targets of hate crimes and violence: more than 25% have been the victims of bias-driven physical and sexual assault, the center found.
Jenner, 71, publicly came out as transgender in her mid-60s, when she was already wealthy and famous. Her physical transition was guided by a team of surgeons and personal stylists.
Salcedo, the Los Angeles activist, said transitioning is a much different experience for most trans people, who usually come out earlier in life and often cannot find work or housing.
For many, particularly trans women of color, she said, they end up on the streets and must engage in sex work to survive. That also makes them vulnerable to violence from strangers, clients and police.
More than 200 transgender people, the majority of them Black trans women, have been killed in the U.S. alone during the last eight years, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
“She’ll never understand what it is like to be fearful walking down the street because of who you are,” Salcedo said of Jenner.
Tension between Jenner and trans leaders erupted during the 2016 presidential campaign, when she supported then-candidate Donald Trump. Jenner spoke at the Republican National Convention, calling Trump a strong supporter of the LGBTQ community.
She later revoked her backing in a 2018 editorial in the Washington Post, citing Trump’s policies on trans issues, including his ban on transgender troops in the military, which President Biden has subsequently reversed.
“The reality is that the trans community is being relentlessly attacked by this president,” Jenner wrote of Trump at the time.
She has now returned to praising the former president. During her interview with Hannity, she said she liked Trump because “he was a disrupter” who “shook the system.”
Jenner’s alignment with Trump suggests that GOP operatives see her as a vehicle to help the party gain relevance after losing the White House in 2020, trans leaders said. Her campaign team includes several of the former president’s allies, including Brad Parscale, who managed Trump’s campaign for much of the 2020 cycle.
This week, Jenner even shared an Instagram post from Donald Trump Jr., which compared her looks to those of Biden’s assistant health secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, who is also transgender.
“It seems to hold true no matter what!!!!” Trump Jr. said in his post. “Conservative girls are just better looking.”
Actress Alexandra Billings, a transgender activist, responded directly to Jenner on Facebook, saying the Instagram share spoke “volumes about both your self hatred and your blatant transphobia.”
Critics also allege it’s no coincidence that Jenner’s stance on girls’ sports comes as the trans community is being scapegoated on an issue that has gained significant traction on the right. Copycat bills to ban transgender athletes from playing on sports teams that match their gender identity have been introduced in at least 30 statehouses across the country this year.
“You have Republican activists who are fighting a culture war,” said Palm Springs City Councilwoman Lisa Middleton, the first transgender person elected to political office in California.
The debate over girls’ sports “is a manufactured issue,” Middleton said. California, for instance, passed a law in 2013 to allow transgender students to play sports on the team that matches their gender identity and in the intervening years there haven’t been any allegations of unfair competition, she said.
Moreover, advocates said, the notion of unfair competition is misguided because transgender people who transition at a young age often take hormone blockers to delay unwanted physical changes while the child decides how to transition.
Jenner’s campaign spokesperson said the candidate “does not believe that biological boys should be competing in girls sports” and that “girls sports must be protected.”
Trump has repeatedly evoked the same issue to rile GOP audiences. During a February speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump suggested that trans women have “shattered” records in women’s sports, including weightlifting. There’s no evidence to support his claim.
Jenner has recently described herself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, saying that she’s “kind of on the Republican side” in a CNN interview. She is registered to vote as a Republican.
While Jenner’s conservative leanings and fondness of Trump aren’t common in the transgender community, she’s not entirely alone.
Gina Roberts, an activist from San Diego, became the first known transgender Republican to be elected to public office in California when she won a seat on a local fire protection district board last year.
Roberts said she can relate to Jenner’s alienation from the community because there is little tolerance for Republicans in transgender circles.
Caitlyn Jenner has spelled out some of her policy positions via TV appearances. This Fox News Channel image shows her interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity (right). It was Jenner’s first big TV appearance since announcing she’s running for governor to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom in an anticipated recall election.
Fox News /Associated Press“For a group of people that think they’re all about tolerance and acceptance, they have a lot of lessons to learn,” Roberts said, adding that in her opinion, Jenner “has been extremely supportive of the trans community, even as they’ve abused the daylights out of her.”
Sa’id said, if nothing else, Jenner’s candidacy will help the public understand that trans people aren’t a monolithic group, that their experiences are shaped by factors like race and income.
In Jenner’s case, Sa’id said, it’s clear her views were formed by her experience as a white person with considerable wealth. Sa’id theorizes that Jenner is being used by GOP strategists who relate to her on that level, and are willing to look past her trans identity.
“It’s conditional acceptance,” she said. “People will make conditional acceptance of people who mirror them in some ways and not others.”
Hallquist of Vermont began her public transition around the same time as Jenner did, in 2015. Initially, she said she was hopeful that Jenner would be a force for good.
But those dreams quickly faded, Hallquist said, as it became clear that Jenner was more focused on her celebrity and designer clothes than learning about the struggles of trans people who are less fortunate than herself.
“She has not even made an attempt to be empathetic,” Hallquist said. “She’s not helping the trans community, she’s helping those who are transphobic confirm their biases.”
Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
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