According to the Corey's comment on my post yesterday, and Diana's post on her blog, we didn't have to wait for the future: There has, apparently, been more consternation over Bruce Jenner's Republican Party affiliation than over anything else revealed in the interview with Diane Sawyer.
I am definitely with Diana on this issue. Like her, I simply cannot understand how any LGBT person supports the "Grand Old Party".
Once, when I was at the LGBT Community Center of New York for some even or another, the Log Cabin Republicans were having a "meet and greet". I bumped into a few of them and they tried to recruit me--why, I don't know. I must say, they were all pleasant, polite and well-spoken. But they also looked like GQ covers come to life, with the credit card limits to match. So, as nice as they were to me, I simply couldn't relate to them, personally or politically.
I take part of that statement back. I could tell that they were trying to mask, forget or simply live through some sort of pain or loss. The difference between them and me--aside from the fact that they were gay men and I'm not--is that they had (or, at least seemed to have) more means to deal with whatever they lost, gave up or had taken from them as a result of their living openly as gay men. You can't (or, at least, shouldn't) hate someone for that. Instead, we can only respect and, to the degree that we can, support each other in our pain and loss.
I have lost more than some, but not as much as some others. The point is, as Diana says, we all go into the unknown when we "come out" or transition and, as Mara Keisling wrote in a CNN money article, every one of us loses something, and some lose everything.
Yes, Bruce Jenner has money and fame. But she has, like the rest of us, lost a lot of time and experiences in living as someone other than her true self. She says she didn't transition sooner because she didn't want to disappoint people who saw her as a role model of manhood. Trying not to disappoint--which almost inevitably is a losing battle--is in itself a loss. So is the joy she probably didn't experience from her accomplishments.
So, while I don't support her politics, I support her journey. That is all any of us can do for each other.
I am definitely with Diana on this issue. Like her, I simply cannot understand how any LGBT person supports the "Grand Old Party".
Once, when I was at the LGBT Community Center of New York for some even or another, the Log Cabin Republicans were having a "meet and greet". I bumped into a few of them and they tried to recruit me--why, I don't know. I must say, they were all pleasant, polite and well-spoken. But they also looked like GQ covers come to life, with the credit card limits to match. So, as nice as they were to me, I simply couldn't relate to them, personally or politically.
I take part of that statement back. I could tell that they were trying to mask, forget or simply live through some sort of pain or loss. The difference between them and me--aside from the fact that they were gay men and I'm not--is that they had (or, at least seemed to have) more means to deal with whatever they lost, gave up or had taken from them as a result of their living openly as gay men. You can't (or, at least, shouldn't) hate someone for that. Instead, we can only respect and, to the degree that we can, support each other in our pain and loss.
I have lost more than some, but not as much as some others. The point is, as Diana says, we all go into the unknown when we "come out" or transition and, as Mara Keisling wrote in a CNN money article, every one of us loses something, and some lose everything.
Yes, Bruce Jenner has money and fame. But she has, like the rest of us, lost a lot of time and experiences in living as someone other than her true self. She says she didn't transition sooner because she didn't want to disappoint people who saw her as a role model of manhood. Trying not to disappoint--which almost inevitably is a losing battle--is in itself a loss. So is the joy she probably didn't experience from her accomplishments.
So, while I don't support her politics, I support her journey. That is all any of us can do for each other.
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