To the shock, surprise and delight of many, Lindsey Graham, the conservative, hawkish senator from South Carolina told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday morning that he would gladly welcome Caitlyn Jenner into the G.O.P. “If Caitlyn Jenner wants to be safe and have a prosperous economy, vote for me,” Graham said.
But if Graham, who has long been rumored to be gay himself, didn’t cause jaws to drop quite far enough among conservatives, he then went on to say: “I’m into addition. I haven’t walked in…” here Graham paused, before saying, with slight emphasis, “her shoes. I don’t have all the answers to the mysteries of life. I can only imagine the torment that Bruce Jenner went through. I hope he—” then quickly correcting himself, “I hope she—has found peace. I’m a pro-life, traditional marriage kind of guy, but I am running to be president of the United States. If Caitlyn Jenner wants to be a Republican, she is welcome in my Party.”
Critics of Graham’s stance, which extends far beyond anything any current Republican presidential contender has offered members of the LGBTQ community in terms of support, argue that their party must stand against this or they will lose voters. Graham countered that he would be, if elected, president to all Americans and not just party loyalists.
Another presidential aspirant, Arkansas ex-governor and Fox pundit, was recently featured in the news after a tape surfaced from a February speaking engagement where he was recorded as saying: “Now I wish that someone told me that when I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in PE [physical education],” Mr. Huckabee said at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, Tenn., in February. “I’m pretty sure that I would have found my feminine side and said: ‘Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today.’ You’re laughing because it sounds so ridiculous, doesn’t it?”
