Caitlyn Jenner – activist, author and much-criticised Donald Trump supporter – has renounced her support for the President, slamming his administration’s proposed policy shift that would see gender defined as an immutable, biological condition defined by genitalia.
In an opinion piece for The Washington Post on Thursday, Jenner apologised for her controversial support for Mr Trump, which has prompted widespread criticism since she endorsed him during the 2016 campaign.
Then-candidate Trump declared his support for LGBTQ people at the Republican National Convention in July 2016. However, Jenner wrote, in the two years since then he had instead “relentlessly attacked” the “valuable and vulnerable” community.
Jenner wrote that her support for Mr Trump was heavily misplaced, as was her belief that he would be the catalyst for the positive change that “an already marginalised and struggling community” needed.
“He has ignored our humanity. He has insulted our dignity. He has made trans people into political pawns.”
Jenner’s support for the Republican Party has been long criticised by members of the LGBTQ community. In an interview published by The Guardian, Jenner once quipped: “I got more trouble for coming out as a Republican than I did for being trans.”
Caitlyn Jenner gained world fame as Olympic gold medallist Bruce Jenner in the 1970s, and became a tabloid fixture thanks to her marriage to Kris Jenner and the family’s notoriety from the the reality series Keeping Up With The Kardashians. In a television interview with Diane Sawyer in April 2015 Jenner announced she was transitioning, and appeared as Caitlyn Jenner on the cover of Vanity Fair three months later.
In her Washington Post op-ed, Jenner wrote: “I believed I could work within the party and the Trump administration to shift the minds of those who most needed shifting. Sadly, I was wrong.”
She said she was more adamant than ever to “find the best way to bring trans issues to the fore of our social and political conversation”.
Jenner concluded: “The world needs to hear us. The world needs to know us. We will not be erased.”