Former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner is running to be the next governor of California, but she’s doing it without the support of the LGBTQ community. A Republican, she has found herself at odds with the trans community frequently and it isn’t hard to see why.
While she announced her campaign earlier this week, Jenner never got around to telling anyone where she stood on any issues – until now. She doesn’t think that transgender girls should be able to play school sports.
Related: Bill Maher’s transphobic jokes about Caitlyn Jenner were brutal & ugly
“This is an issue of fairness,” Jenner told a TMZ reporter who caught her out and about. “This is why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sports in school. It just isn’t fair. And we have to protect girls’ sports in our schools.”
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“But if someone transitions and now identifies as a girl isn’t it delegitimizing their identity to deny them…” the reporter starts to ask before Jenner cuts them off.
“Have a good day,” she says before climbing into her vehicle.
Jenner, a former Trump supporter, is one of the best-known trans people in America, but she has been a lightning rod for criticism among LGBTQ people. She has made waves for her tactless comments and support for the Republican party while it relentlessly attacks the trans community.
Jenner has also been getting slammed by progressives for her political stances and even her stepdaughter Kim Kardashian West is reportedly “disappointed” in Jenner’s politics, raising the question of who exactly supports Jenner.
She isn’t the only LGBTQ candidate who may run for governor. Former out U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell is allegedly interviewing campaign strategists and talking to potential major donors and will be ready to pounce according to Politico.
Grenell said he isn’t running, but so did Jenner earlier this month when her possible gubernatorial campaign was getting attention and in February when rumors of her campaign started. He also has a troubled history with the LGBTQ community.
Gov. Newsom has a long history of supporting LGBTQ equality. In 2004, as mayor of San Francisco, he ordered the San Francisco city–county clerk to let same-sex couples get marriage licenses, which was banned by state law at the time.
He said that he had the authority under the California Constitution’s equal protection clause, which he believed the marriage equality ban violated. The California Supreme Court overturned the marriages.
This was over a decade before the Supreme Court would legalize marriage equality in all 50 states with its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, and his move brought national attention to the issue.