Olympian and reality star Caitlyn
Jenner will no longer be honored Saturday at the St. John's
TransNation film festival.
St. John's Well Child & Family
Center, which puts on the festival, is a free/low-cost health clinic
in Los Angeles. The center offers a transgender health program that
includes hormone replacement therapy and referrals to services
critical to the transgender community.
Nearly 2,300 people signed a Change.org
petition calling on the center to rescind the award. The petition
from Trans Liberation Now threatened to protest the gala at which
Jenner was to be honored if the St. John's Well Child & Family
Center did not comply with its demand.
According to Trans Liberation Now,
Zackary Drucker helms both the TransNation film festival and Jenner's
recently launched foundation.
“We will NO LONGER allow [Jenner] to
use her foundation as a self-congratulatory tool to lend credibility
to her status as an influential figure within the LGBTQ community,”
the
petition reads. “Instead of allowing a hard-working,
well-respected African-American trans woman have her moment, Caitlyn
Jenner used it as an opportunity to center herself by having Zackary
Drucker, her president, honor HER at this event!”
Jenner – a Republican who has faced
backlash for her support of lawmakers who oppose LGBT rights,
including President Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz –
announced that she was bowing out of the event in a statement.
“Last week, I had the honor of
sitting with the staff of St. John’s Trans Health Program,”
Jenner wrote. “With open hearts, everyone around the table shared
their thoughts and feelings about the times that we’re in, and what
we could do to heal the pain of our community together.”
“In this spirit of unity and love,
I’m going to decline the award they so graciously offered me for
supporting their mission. I understand that my presence is
distracting from the real purpose of the event, which is to celebrate
the important and life-saving work of St. John’s. I will continue
my commitment to helping marginalized communities through my
foundation.”
“Trans people understand what it’s
like to be judged for who we are, and defined by a world that doesn’t
understand us, so let’s present a united front in support of St.
John’s Trans Health Program,” she added.
St. John's Well Child & Family
Center said in a statement that its actions were misunderstood.
“We deeply regret that our actions
have hurt and divided the transgender community. That was not our
intention. Our mission has always been to uplift and move our
community forward. We originally decided to honor Caitlyn Jenner, due
to her support of our Transgender Health Program, when few others
were stepping up. However, we hear the concerns of local activists,
and we take them very seriously. Therefore, Caitlyn will not be
receiving an award at the Eleganza Ball or attending the event,”
the center said.
In an Advocate op-ed, activist
Ashlee Marie Preston also called on the center to reconsider honoring
Jenner.