Caitlyn Jenner lives on the outer edges of Malibu, up a winding, tree-lined road leading to a modern mountaintop home. Her yellow Labrador, Bertha, happily skips across the white tile floors of her living room. The kitchen is pristine, with a refrigerator stocked with bottles of water and a counter holding a platter of chocolate-chip cookies and a bowl of M&Ms. The world’s most famous transgender woman has retreated from the public spotlight that once engulfed her and the hounding paparazzi who once tracked her every move. In her first lengthy sit-down magazine interview in more than a year, Jenner speaks with Variety about her conscious choice to focus, unheralded, on being a behind-the-scenes advocate for transgender rights on Capitol Hill. “I don’t do a lot of media. I don’t want to be seen everywhere,” the 68-year-old Jenner says on a recent afternoon, her bare feet up on a lounge chair. “Today, I’m very politically involved. Nobody really knows it. I do it very quietly because I have been so criticized by the liberal side of the media. I can get more things done if I don’t stick my nose into everything publicly.” Jenner’s low-key lifestyle and muted public profile stand in sharp contrast to the days when her much-talked-about 2015 interview with Diane Sawyer, in which she revealed plans to transition from a man to a woman, attracted a staggering 17 million viewers. Next came the cover of Vanity Fair and her own reality TV show, I Am Cait. Her newfound fame put enormous pressure on Jenner — who had lived the first 65 years of her life as Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete Bruce Jenner — to be the perfect transgender role model. She had difficulty living up to those expectations, especially after coming out as something more controversial than being transgender: a Republican in Hollywood. On her reality show, Jenner expressed support for Ted Cruz and sparred with activists, who were as experienced in trans-politics as she was unversed. She voted for Trump in the 2016 election (but is no longer a fan). Her conservatism made her a pariah in the left-leaning entertainment industry, where she’s been criticized for not doing enough to help the transgender community. Jenner spoke candidly with Variety about the pain of that rejection. “No matter what you say or do, they think you don’t get it because you’re this kind of white, privileged person,” says Jenner. She disputes the notion that she hasn’t worked hard, or that her wealth disqualifies her from being an advocate. “I haven’t turned my back on anybody,” she says. But Jenner has received a cold shoulder from some of her peers: “I’ve felt it big time, and it hurts. Sometimes this community can be really tough…”
You know, one of her major stumbling blocks is that she keeps donating money, then gets flack for doing so (recall councillor near-candidate Ashlee Marie Preston’s protest of Jenner almost receiving an award for her bequest). I don’t see Gen. Jennifer Pritzker (whose cousin J.B. is the Democratic nominee for Illinois governor) getting lauded for contributing to the Palm Center, her pet project, and I don’t see Martine Rosenblatt, co-founder of Sirius Satellite Radio, donating to anyone other than her pet projects. So all the trans community is left in terms of trans benefactors who happen to be rich is, um, Caitlyn Jenner. (And where are the Wachowski sisters?)
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@lifeafterdawn