By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - - Monday, April 27, 2015
As a Christian, Republican and transgender individual, Bruce Jenner demonstrates that the conservative umbrella is just as diverse and inclusive as its squawking liberal counterpart (“Bruce Jenner: I’m a Republican and a Christian,” Web, April 25). Today gay conservative voices — most notably Washington Times columnist Tammy Bruce — champion the truth that the Republican party has evolved to a greater degree of social acceptance.
This shift parallels Mr. Jenner’s own personal journey to self-acceptance. In the 1970s as an Olympian, Mr. Jenner epitomized that age’s American spirit and representation of athletic masculinity. Over the proceeding decades societal views of what it is to symbolize the American male (or a Republican, for that matter) have changed favorably to include broader definitions.
Mr. Jenner’s gender orientation aside, to the liberal, sycophantic circle fest that is Hollywood, coming out as Republican is a true act of bravery and defiance.
Naysayers who claim that Mr. Jenner’s transition is nothing more than a publicity stunt designed to earn a few bucks don’t begin to understand the degree of Mr. Jenner’s personal courage.
When the inner gender identity does not match one’s outer appearance it is like being a prisoner in one’s own body. Psychologically I can think of nothing tougher. To compound that internal, private struggle with the very public glare of celebrity by coming out as transgender — and Republican — must be, to one’s character, a trial by fire. By comparison, the pressures of Mr. Jenner’s past Olympic victories appear small. An NBC poll indicated that a staggering 41 percent of transgender people in the United States have attempted to commit suicide. That statistic is a completely ignored epidemic. And similar to his Olympic glory that inspired a past generation, Mr. Jenner’s tenacious example to follow his own path will inspire and save the lives of a new generation of at-risk gender-questioning young people who know nothing of Mr. Jenner’s decades-old decathlon gold metal. Bruce Jenner should be embraced for his dedication to the truth and his conservatism.
DAVID L. HUNTER
Germantown
http://www.americanthinker.com/author/david_l_hunter/
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/27/letter-to-the-editor-applaud-bruce-jenners-courage/#ixzz3ZNrY59Vp
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