Caitlyn Jenner was the first prominent transgender celebrity, but the Olympic athlete turned reality television star turned cultural spokesperson has trod an unusual path compared to most trans people of note.
A conservative — or at least a Republican — Jenner has been an outspoken Trump supporter and ran for the GOP nomination in the effort to oust and replace Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) in 2021.
Jenner continued to demonstrate his right-of-center bona fides in a recent interview on GB News with legendary comedian and actor John Cleese, and the conservative UK news network ran some clips from the interview as reels on Instagram. Jenner drops a fusillade of truth bombs about wokeism and the trans movement in the clips.
In the first clip, Cleese asks Jenner, "What do you really think about woke?"
"I hate it," Jenner replies emphatically to Cleese's appreciative laughter. "I am so against it. You have to realize, and being in the trans community, you think, 'Oh my gosh, you must be —'"
"You're not expecting that," Cleese interjects.
"Yeah, you don't expect it, but I've been around a long time," Jenner continues. "I've seen a lot. I've always been a very proud American, and I'm proud of our culture and everything in it. And I see what's happening in the woke world, and it — to be honest with you — really, really bothers me."
In the second reel, Jenner expounds further on what he thinks about wokeism, particularly among the LGBT crowd.
"So let's take the trans people," he begins the clip. "I think they've taken the woke ideology and are just taking it to the max, where it's not even — I'm a common sense person. Okay? I like to think I'm the adult in the room. Maybe I'm not, but I like to think of myself as the adult in the room that has had a lot of experiences in life. I've gone through a lot in my life."
Jenner contrasts his life experiences with those of the young, woke LGBT activists, which he calls "the radical Rainbow Coalition" and the "radical rainbow mafia." And he calls it like he sees it about their radicalism.
Related: Wokeism Is a Religion Without Grace
"There is a small group that has taken over, even in the trans community, a small group of highly woke, crazy people that I don't think, you know — they're not good for trans people in general," he says, "because they're so outspoken and you know, 'Trans women are real women' and you know, they're yelling at people, and you're not going to get anywhere, but it's a small community and it's social media."
Why do they have so much power if they're so small?" Cleese asks.
"Because social media gives them a big, loud microphone, you know, a big, loud voice," Jenner replies. "What social media has done is given small groups a big voice, and the media loves it because it's very controversial."
"And they get a lot of clicks," Cleese adds.
"Yes, yes," Jenner agrees. "And so, so many people in the LGBT community — I mean, not 'so many' — a small group of people in the LGBT community have this big social media microphone that's out there. And they want to get clicks. They want to be celebrities; they want to be influencers, and honestly I think that really hurts. Most trans people, all they want to do is just go live their life."
"Well, that's the feeling I have that there's an extraordinary obsession about a group of people who are emboldened like any other group of people, but it seems to be out of proportion, the amount of coverage they get," Cleese states.
GB News saved Jenner's most explosive truth bombs for the third reel. In that clip, Jenner gets brutally honest about the trans community's holiest of sacred cows.
"I see these — 'Trans women are real women,'" he begins. "No, you're not. Okay. That's the bottom line."
Jenner then elaborated by taking his own life as an example.
"That's the way I look at my life. My — I have everything changed: birth certificate, gender marker, F. Okay, everything's changed. Driver's license. I'm a pilot; my pilot's license, you name every piece of — everything that's in my name is legally Caitlyn Marie Jenner, gender marker, F. Okay."
He then made things slightly weird talking about bathroom conversations, but it's where he brought the most fascinating and notable truth.
"As I said earlier, I haven't used the men's room in a million years and probably never will, and I've never had a problem," he said. "I mean, I go in there. I'm respectful of the other women that they're there. They — certainly a lot of them will know who you are. I go in, do my business, and get out. If somebody starts up a conversation, I'll have a conversation with them. So I live my life as a woman, but I'm not. I don't consider myself this — thinking, 'I am a woman now and on and on.' No, I consider myself a trans person. That's who I am."
It's refreshing that Jenner considers himself a "trans person" and not a woman and is honest about it. It's definitely not going to win him more friends among the woke, but he shared a brutal truth in this interview that more people need to hear.
