Opinion: Generations of LGBT activists blazed the trail for Caitlyn Jenner
To the editor: By coming out as a trans woman and being so visible, Caitlyn Jenner has generated unprecedented and much-needed attention to transgender issues. And she’s woman enough to admit that her fellow Republicans “do not do as good a job when it comes to LGBT issues.” (“Caitlyn Jenner talks Trump, being a transgender Republican and missing Bruce,” Opinion, May 10)
But her assertion that “sitting down” with religious and political conservatives so they could get to know a trans person, possibly for the first time, is “the only way you can slowly change minds,” is naive at best.
In previous decades, when Caitlyn was living a privileged life as Bruce, LGBT activists were organizing, raising money, protesting in the streets and waging legal battles — the hard, dirty and sometimes dangerous work that’s necessary to propel any human rights movement.
I don’t discount the possible value of those private Washington dinners that Jenner spoke of; I’m sure she looked well-styled and glamorous. But she needs to do some deeper thinking about LGBT history and the path others paved to the freedom and respect she now enjoys.
John Morgan Wilson, West Hollywood
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