And I certainly will, should I ever meet her.
Transgendered people cause me no particular heartburn. However, I tend to be charitable with people who do have issues with the notion. I don’t think being gay is necessarily the same wheelhouse as deciding you have the wrong bits (though I understand Jenner has not actually undergone gender reassignment surgery). Moreover, I think it’s thoroughly defensible, and should be uncontroversial, for a transgendered person to seek a path to happiness without such surgery. Perhaps that is where Caitlyn is. I don’t know.
Regarding the issue of transgendered people in public restrooms and such, I’m just not sure it’s such a big deal. Consider it with me. First, the mathematics are highly favorable. We’re not talking about a lot of people at all. Second, I already proceed as if every person in a restroom with my child is a voracious sexual predator, and instruct them to do the same. (Relevant parenting moment: “What do bad guys look like?” “Good guys.”)
Finally–overarchingly–do you really believe you’ve never once to date shared a restroom with a transgendered person?
So that’s about where my current personal opinion is on the issue. I’m sure it’s too far over some lines for some folks, and not far enough over some lines for others.
(See also: just about any other view I have.)
My considerably larger problem with how all this has gone is that we seem to be pretending this is somehow fundamentally different from any of the other highly self-centered exercises that pass for pop culture. It’s not. It’s only so many more doings of the rich and egotistical.
It’s “me me me” aimed squarely at a populace long conditioned to lap such up.
I understand the argument that Caitlyn Jenner could inspire other transgendered people to come out of the shadows and embrace who they are. That’s valid, but I think it could have happened with a lot more dignity (and possibly efficacy) than it has. I’d have been much more impressed had the big magazine reveal been a profile in Time with a less provocative cover, for example.
The notion that “people are who they are” goes both ways. Ultimately, societally, it should be unremarkable that Caitlyn Jenner is a transgendered woman. I think it’s reasonable to consider whether a splashy spectacle serves that end.
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A large part of me still believes this is all a highly orchestrated Kardashian publicity stunt. And the rest of me really doesn’t care one way or the other.
Oh, I have no doubt it’s exactly that. I think it’s absurd to call it anything else. I’m suggesting that if your goal is for none of this sort of thing to be a big deal, then maybe making a very flashy big deal of it is imprudent.