Back in February, Caitlyn Jenner asked Donald Trump to call her.
The reality star was angry that the President rolled back federal guidelines at the time that said transgender students could use public school bathrooms and locker rooms matching their chosen gender identity.
This seemed especially galling because Trump had previously come out in favor of the guidelines.
On the campaign trail, he also spoke out in defense of the LGBT community, saying such things as the following, after that awful shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando:
“As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me!”
Fast forward to this morning and Trump announcing on Twitter that transgender individuals would no longer be permitted to serve in the U.S. military.
“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” the Commander-in-Chief wrote, explaining:
“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming. Victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.
“Thank you.”
In response to this decree, many stars came out swinging against Trump, even harder than usual.
“We should be grateful to the people who wish to serve, not turn our backs on them. Banning transgender people is hurtful, baseless and wrong,” Tweeted Ellen DeGeneres.
And Demi Lovato:
“I just want to tell the transgender community that I love you and you ARE supported no matter what.#ProtectTransTroops.”
And Judd Apatow:
“One by one he will f-ck over every segment of the population he made a promise to except Russia, bankers and big oil.Get ready-you’re next.”
Many who follow the celebrity gossip world, however, were looking to Jenner for her reply to the situation.
She’s the best known transgender person in Hollywood, after all.
Thus far, Caitlyn has kept it pretty simple and pretty factual, simply Tweeting the following at the President:
“There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us. What happened to your promise to fight for them?”
Trump has not yet said whether he will actually remove these 15,000 individuals from the armed forces.
But his Tweets certainly imply as much.
Which is just… it’s astounding, really.
While on The View recently, Jenner said she’s been reaching out to members of Trump’s administration to “help them” on LGBTQ issues.
She added that she had really hoped Trump would be a “bit more outspoken” in his support of the LGBTQ community, considering all he said during the election, but Jenner said she thought “it’s a lot of the people around him” who are affecting the President.
Does she still feel this way?
We can’t imagine so.
On July 16, meanwhile, Jenner actually said she may run for a seat in the California senate.
“Over the next six months or so I gotta find out where I can do a better job,” Jenner said on a radio show, adding:
“Can I do a better job from the outside working the perimeter of the political scene, being open to talking to anybody, or are you better off from the inside?”
We’ll be curious to see if Jenner really does enter the world of politics.
But we need not wonder any longer whether she’ll enter the world of the armed forces. She isn’t allowed to.
