Politics

Caitlyn Jenner Wants to Be Ted Cruz's Trans Ambassador

March 3rd 2016

Caitlyn Jenner says she wants to help Ted Cruz's relationship with the transgender community.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Advocate on Wednesday, the prominent transgender reality TV star and former Olympian said she wants to be Republican presidential candidate's "trans ambassador."

Here's an excerpt from Jenner's interview with The Advocate's Dawn Ennis:

"Wouldn't it be great, let's say he goes on to be president," she tells me in relating a conversation on the tour bus. “And I have all my girls on a trans issues board to advise him on making decisions when it comes to trans issues. Isn’t that a good idea?” she asked me.

“You’re going to be Ted Cruz’s trans ambassador?”

“Yes, trans ambassador to the president of the United States, so we can say, ‘Ted, love what you’re doing but here’s what’s going on.'”

Jenner, a Republican, praised Cruz's hard line brand of conservatism, while acknowledging in the same breath the Texas senator's otherwise abhorrent record on trans rights.

"I like Ted Cruz,” she declares. “I think he’s very conservative, and a great constitutionalist, and a very articulate man. I haven’t endorsed him or anything like that. But I also think, he’s an evangelical Christian, and probably one of the worst ones when it comes to trans issues."

Caitlyn Jenner

Cruz has come under fire for his stance on trans rights, especially on the issue of trans students using school bathrooms and locker rooms according to their gender preference — not their biological sex.

During an Iowa campaign stop in January, Cruz said that trans students could use faculty bathrooms instead of student bathrooms — though neither would be preferable:

"Look, I don't know the facts of that, but I'll say that inflicting - inflicting him on the teachers is probably better than sticking him in the shower with the teenage girls."

ted-cruz-speechFlickr/Elvert Barnes - flic.kr

Cruz echoed the sentiment in a radio interview with the conservative radio host Steven Crowder, during which he criticized the Department of Justice's support of transgender students.

“Look, these guys are so nutty that the federal government is going after school districts, trying to force them to let boys shower with little girls,” Cruz said. “Now listen: I’m the father of two daughters, and the idea that the federal government is coming in saying that boys, with all the God-given equipment of boys, can be in the shower room with junior high girls — this is lunacy!”

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