If leading GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump had endorsed North Carolina’s law requiring people to use bathrooms based on their biological sex rather than gender identity, it would have put his
hotels at an economic disadvantage in the marketplace. Mr. Trump’s announcement, breathtaking to some in the GOP, is an important political moment in the 2016 presidential race and in the LGBT struggle for employment protections.
Earlier this campaign season, GOP Ohio Gov. John Kasich, also a presidential contender, made a slight ripple by stating to news reporters he would not have signed the North Carolina law regarding bathrooms. The same statement by Mr. Trump is creating a political tsunami.
Mr. Trump made his statement by way of economic compassion for transgendered people. He spoke of the economic punishment society has heaped upon transgendered workers. This is the reality of the situation and it comes by way of a question related to transgender activist and Olympic Gold Medalist Caitlyn Jenner, who also happens to be a conservative Republican.
Mr. Trump’s opening to transgender rights three months away from the GOP national Convention in Cleveland, I think has the potential to further dramatize what already proves to be as dramatic a Republican convention as the first one I attended 40 years ago.
In 1976 President Gerald Ford faced off against former California Gov. Ronald Reagan in what was called the political shoot out in Kansas City. The political calculus is significantly different in 2016 but still we have similarities. Jerry Ford was the establishment Republican running hard against a political outsider from California.
I worked for the President Ford Campaign in several states and Washington, D.C. before heading for Kansas City. The only guns I saw at Kemper Arena were worn by security guards and police. After all, the president and vice president of the United States were there as well as many cabinet officials. With the hotheaded Reagan delegates, especially those from Texas and North Carolina, security was needed.
Social issues were controversial in those days. First Lady Betty Ford had publicly addressed her addiction issues. This was a startling admission to the Christian Reaganites. Betty Ford had also made headlines when she told a news reporter she would buy daughter Susan contraceptives to prevent pregnancy. The Reagan followers were shocked by this. It is widely believed now that Nancy was pregnant when she married Ronnie. There were other issues on which Reagan was solidly conservative and Mr. Ford significantly less so.
At the end of the 1976 GOP convention Mr. Ford became one of the few politicians to defeat Reagan. It was fair but the Reagans were madder than hell about it. After Ford’s loss to Jimmy Carter, Reagan spoke of creating his political party. Instead, he fashioned the GOP into what it is today.
Donald Trump has also talked about running as a third party candidate should GOP political powers nominate someone other than him. At this point, it seems politically unwise for Republicans to dump Trump.
The better calculation is for Trump to seek political territory and endorsements which his more conservative challenger, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, cannot obtain. That brings us back to conservative Republican transgender activist Caitlyn Jenner, an Olympic athlete from the 1970s who posed with Jerry Ford at the White House.
A Trump Jenner meeting could be the equivalent of Nixon’s trip to Communist China. It was a geographic trip only Nixon could take, politicians said at the time. If Trump extends his hand to Jenner and she accepts it will be a huge political moment in the GOP and in U.S. politics.
The Trump Jenner political embrace will be more than two middle age Reality TV stars looking for ratings. It will signify real LGBT progress.
Contributor Jim Patterson is a writer and speaker based in California and Washington DC. JEPCapitolHill@gmail.com
