While the rest of the Republican National Convention was waking up, the Americans United Fund, a conservative organization working to combat discriminatory, anti-LGBT policies in select states, was holding its first major event in a “big tent” (both actual and metaphorical) on the grounds of Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The event, which was billed as “very exclusive,” had far more spectators and media than organizers anticipated, all drawn by the promise of a speech from reality TV star and transgender activist Caitlyn Jenner, as well as speeches from prominent Ohio LGBT activist and talk show host Montel Williams.
“It sold out, even though its not for sale,” said one event management official.
The room packed up around 9:15 a.m., a little after the designated start time and kicked off with he national anthem and a speech from one of AUF’s primary directors, Tyler Deaton. Noting that the event was a first for the RNC — if not among the RNC’s most controversial — Deaton was quick to note that “the future of the Republican Party is inside this big tent.”
Stressing the importance of Constitutional freedom, Deaton emphasized AUF’s signature goal: advocating for LGBT freedom, so that LGBT Americans “can’t be fired from their job, kicked out of their house or denied a public service or public accommodation.”
But while the crowd was generally supportive of AUF’s legislative agenda, they were mostly there to see special guests Montel Williams and Caitlyn Jenner.
Montel Williams, an outspoken conservative on social media, gave a heartfelt, emotional speech about growing up in the civil rights movement, and how his service defending the Constitution in the armed forces (first the Marines and then the Navy), shaped his view of how important the equal protection of America’s rights and freedoms really are.
The former talk show host encouraged his audience to be “truth tellers,” to “come together and live up to the dream and the potential,” and, using the words of President Ronald Reagan, to stress to their fellow RNC colleagues that “in the party of Lincoln there is no room for intolerance and bigotry of any kind.”
“When there is inequality for any one of us, there’s inequality for all of us,” Williams told the audience. “And as a nation right now, whether people want to try their best to rewrite history, you can’t rewrite the fact that this country has existed because of the contributions of all of us.” “Us” he said, included innumerable LGBT Americans.
Finally, Caitlyn Jenner sat down with AUF President Margaret Hoover for a question and answer interview that touched on Jenner’s personal struggle with being transgender — and with being conservative.
“It was easy to come out as trans,” she mused. “It was harder to come out as a Republican!”
Jenner discussed how her experience as a person of faith — and a person with a core belief in limited government and free expression — shaped how she approached the issue of transgender rights, and LGBT rights overall. She said she wanted to “help the Republican Party in so many ways,” including helping transgender youth survive in a changing world, where acceptance isn’t always hard to come by.
She also encouraged Republican politicians to communicate openly with transgender people who are a small population, but who have tremendous impact.
“We are party of humanity,” she said. “The experience for me has been, I have seen so many trans people who haves struggled — in my case my whole life — they have struggled for many, many years, once they make the decision to live their life authentically, these people are absolutely incredible.”
She even meshed the aims of the GOP and the transgender community: “I want jobs for everybody. I want jobs for transgender people! Hopefully we can all make some positive changes if we all work together.”
Jenner was gracious and sincere, and seemed truly grateful to see hundreds of supporters gathered to hear her speech, a development she said was very meaningful to someone who discovered her “true self” in the 1980s, when resources — even therapists familiar with issues of gender identity — were few.
Hoover and Jenner also touched on the transgender bathroom issue, mentioning that while the concern behind the law seemed sincere, the dangers the laws preventing transgender individuals from using the bathroom of their choice was a law in search of a crime. AUF is working to address laws like the one in North Carolina, as examples of government overreach that also infringe on LGBT rights, twin concerns of AUF’s conservative and libertarian board.
As for Donald Trump, Jenner wouldn’t say much except that she had been “very disappointed [with the GOP] over the last five or ten years, but I won’t give up hope on it.”
Talk of Trump was pretty scarce. There were no Make America Great Again hats, but there was also none of the abject pessimism that has marked other gatherings of more modern conservatives. The crowd seemed to embrace Montel Williams’s closing words: “It’s time now for us to come together and live up to the dream and the potential we have as a nation” — whether the mainstream Republican Party joins with them or not.
