California GOP gubernatorial candidate Caitlyn Jenner, who's currently waging a brave war against the homeless, was verbally harassed Friday at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, which is hosting the seemingly biweekly Conservative Political Action Convention (CPAC).
A heckler who calls himself the “Black Conservative Preacher" repeatedly referred to Jenner by her dead name and said “look at the sick freak" as she waited for her car. This was repulsive but arguably predictable behavior from people at a bigoted asshole convention.
Jenner is a terrible person who seriously suggested moving homeless people from Venice Beach to “big open fields" where no one can see them, expect maybe some elk. However, her gender identity isn't the source of her sociopathic tendencies.
Jenner wasn't left entirely in the lurch by her fellow conservatives. Right-wing troll Tomi Lahren defended Jenner today.
Twitter
Hearing how some “conservatives" treated @Caitlyn_Jenner at CPAC makes my blood boil. There's no room for your hate in the America First movement. We believe in freedom and we believe in limited government. The way she chooses to live her personal life harms you in no way!
Although Lahren implies that people “choose" to be trans, this is otherwise not a terrible sentiment. It's a wonder that Lahren's fingers let her type the words. However, the no-true Scotsman position she takes regarding conservatism doesn't wash. Republicans are collectively hostile to trans people. Kentucky's second worst senator, Rand Paul, spewed transphobic garbage at Dr. Rachel Levine's Senate confirmation hearing for assistant secretary of health. He accused Dr. Levine, a trans woman, of supporting "surgical destruction of a child's genitalia," or what real doctors call "accepted medical treatments for trans individuals."
Republicans don't have a live-and-let-live approach to trans Americans, who they actively smear as “confused" and potential sexual predators. Ben Carson once suggested separate and clearly unequal bathrooms for trans people, saying they "make everyone else uncomfortable." Lahren claims conservatives believe in “freedom" and “limited government," but Republicans are actively passing legislation banning trans kids from competing in team sports based on their gender identity. Worse, they are attempting to block trans youth from receiving accepted medical treatment. Republicans consistently prioritize religious bigots' right to discriminate against trans people over trans people's right to exist.
But an asshole was gross and mean to a rich, white conservative woman. There are laws in this country about that sort of thing. Lahren seemingly longs for a time when Republicans were superficially polite to individual minorities while otherwise denying them basic human rights, but those days are over. GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Marjorie Taylor Greene both voted against the Equality Act, but Kinzinger was disgusted that Greene would post a transphobic sign outside the office of Rep. Marie Newman, whose daughter is trans. Cruelty is the raison d'être of the modern GOP, which Greene more accurately represents.
Of course, Tomi Lahren isn't some common Never Trumper like Nicolle Wallace, Amanda Carpenter, or Jennifer Rubin. She's built her career on ad hominem attacks in the absence of coherent thought. Just last week, she said some flight attendants are “almost Nazis of the air" because they're just doing their damn job and enforcing airlines' mask mandates. She's also described so-called "cancel culture" as “the most deadly and un-American threat to this country and our freedom." COVID-19 has killed more than 600,000 Americans, so it's objectively deadlier than some celebrity losing their job because they said something offensive on Twitter. Maybe COVID-19 stands up during the national anthem, therefore it's not “the most deadly and un-American threat."
CPAC was branded “America UnCancelled," and Jenner's heckler represented the “anti-woke truth-telling" conservatives consider the apex of freedom. CPAC speakers reportedly made numerous jokes at the expense of transgender athletes and celebrities, and Jenner is both! Right-wing podcaster Jesse Kelly performed a routine that could possibly pass for comedy on a 1970s schoolyard.
"The U.S. Women's Gymnastics coach was asked if he was concerned about the lack of feminine grace on his squad. Coach got a little defensive and snapped, 'We might not be the most feminine team on the planet, but these girls have the balls to compete," Kelly said in the skit, which took place at a "Socialist News Network" desk featuring a "CNN" ripoff logo.
People in a free society can still choose to be kind, but conservatives are prisoners of their own bigotry.
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