It’s time to speak up! Caitlyn Jenner weighed in on the anti-LGBT laws that have been signed in several states, including North Carolina and Mississippi, in a new blog post on her website on Friday, April 22.
“There’s a lot of news out there about bills in different state legislatures that are good or bad for the LGBT community,” the I Am Cait star, 66, wrote. “Lately, they’ve been mostly not-so-good bills. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of message these harmful bills send, especially to transgender youth growing up in these states.”
In March, North Carolina became the first state to ban transgender people from using public restrooms that don’t match the sex assigned to them at birth. Since then, artists such as Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam have canceled concerts in the state as a form of protest. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump also recently spoke out against the “bathroom bill.”
“We all want safety and privacy in public bathrooms,” Jenner continued. “But these anti-LGBT bills, like the ones in North Carolina and Mississippi, actually make us less safe, not more safe. They open the door to abuse, aggressive and confrontational behavior in bathrooms, and encourage strangers to demand that women and girls prove that they are actually female in order to use the restroom. No one wants that.”
The former Olympian, who revealed her transition to a woman on the July 2015 cover of Vanity Fair, also pointed out that the Massachusetts Senate plans to vote on a bill that would ban public discrimination against transgender people.
“We need more bills like the one in Massachusetts — bills which ensure that every transgender person, no matter what state they’re growing up in, can go to school safely and get the education they deserve,” she wrote. “We need to make sure they can put that education to good use by getting a job and making a living for themselves and supporting their families. We need to make sure they can buy a home and go out to a restaurant or a movie theater without facing harassment. And yes, we need to make sure those trans kids — and all transgender people — can use the restrooms that align with how they live every day.”
Jenner added, “How you’re treated shouldn’t depend on geography — our country is better than that.”
