Conservative politics and the American religion: The Caitlyn Jenner moment

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2015/06/conservative-politics-and-american-religion

Jun 9th 2015, 20:02 BY W.W. | CHATTANOOGA



IT CANNOT have escaped your attention that the gold-medalist decathlete American hero of the 1976 Summer Olympics, Bruce Jenner, now prefers to be known as Caitlyn. Ms Jenner's Vanity Fair cover is already, as they say, "iconic". Ravishing at the age of 65, her expression is shy, pleading and coyly hopeful, her athlete's arms held behind her back like a St Sebastian.

As Bruce, Ms Jenner in recent years had been little more than an awkward auxiliary member of the famous-for-being-famous Kardashian clan. Last week, however, Caitlyn Jenner was the most famous person in the world, according to Google at least. Searches for Ms Jenner outpaced those of her step-daughter, Kim Kardashian, by a factor of seven, despite the news that Ms Kardashian is now expecting her second child with Kanye West, a famous recording artist. Which is just to say that the advent of Caitlyn Jenner is, like it or not, a very big deal. Ms Jenner's pioneering public journey across the newly porous boundaries of gender identity lends an urgency to the question of what we owe, morally and legally, to the transgendered. There's no avoiding this conversation now.

Republican presidential contenders would prefer to avoid it, however. "Stay the hell away from it,” advises Ed Rollins a Republican strategist. “f you’re not careful, you can end up insulting a large portion of the population". So far, the big names in the race for the GOP nomination have heeded this advice. Those candidates who have piped up have expressed a carefully modulated tolerance.

"I can only imagine the torment that Bruce Jenner went through," offered Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina. "I hope he's—I hope she has found peace." Though Mr Graham affirmed that he is a "pro-life, traditional marriage kind of guy", he added that "If Caitlyn Jenner wants to be a Republican, she is welcome in my party."

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