Caitlyn Jenner made her debut this week even as those who have presented themselves as the "moral authorities" of society weathered a stunning fall from grace.
Jenner's photo spread in Vanity Fair, shot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, went viral as she shed the identity formerly known as "Bruce" and declared "Call me Caitlyn" to the world. The accompanying interview led to a cascade of media coverage with TV hosts and journalists juggling a mix of pronouns as they struggled to properly gender Jenner.
While Jenner's introduction was not without its critics, it was most certainly a transcendent transgender moment much like Ellen Degeneres's groundbreaking "Yep, I'm Gay" Time magazine cover in 1997. That was a turning point for the nation and the fact that Degeneres went on to become an even higher profile and more beloved and influential entertainer became a sign of what was possible for all those who remained closeted across the country. Social turning points are never attributable to just one act or one person, but one person with a boatload of courage can certainly help define a turning point. Jenner will go down in history for that even as people perhaps understandably worry about the message her "commercial spectacle" is sending to kids.
But I say, "Brava!" This may not be all Caitlyn has to offer. She is still exploring, feeling out her new identity. Where she starts on the cover of a glossy magazine may not even remotely resemble where she ends up. But she did it. She lived with a secret for years, posing as the brawny Olympian we all knew and lauded, and she has finally looked the expectations of the world in the eye and chosen a different path.
Naturally, all this heroism and honesty was sure to draw out the self-proclaimed keepers of all that's good and true in the world. And no one proved more righteously hypocritical than our favorite Baptist preacher turned pill pusher turned presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee.
Instead of honoring Jenner's journey—or at least shutting up about it—Huckabee managed to mock her moment of truth.
“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,” said Huckabee. “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?”
Head below the fold to read more of Huckabee's ridiculousness.
Hard to know whether that type of compassion is the result of nature, nurture, or just good pastoral training. But in Huck's defense, he may have been too busy trying to scrub the endorsements of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar from his presidential website to ponder Jenner's basic human dignity.
Or maybe the Huckster just despises Jenner for being part of the LGBT family, because Huck certainly found kindess in his heart for the Duggars, despite the fact that he was desperately trying to erase his history with them.
The Duggars are the uber-Christian reality TV sensations who finally gave an interview this week about the fact that their son Josh repeatedly sexually molested his sisters and another underage girl around 2002.
Huckabee was quick to issue a statement about the Duggar revelation after Josh resigned from his post at the anti-LGBT hate group the Family Research Council.
“Janet and I want to affirm our support for the Duggar family,” Huckabee said in a statement Friday on behalf of himself and his wife. “Josh’s actions when he was an underage teen are as he described them himself, ‘inexcusable,’ but that doesn’t mean ‘unforgivable.’"
So let's get this straight—the Duggars, who originally sat on the information for over a year after their teenage son admitted to them what he had done, are worthy of compassion. But Jenner, who has made an open and honest statement about her identity that will almost certainly help save lives, deserves derision.
This is the type of moral leadership that runs so rampant among Republicans, the party of the Christian right and "values voters" and the "moral majority." It's the type of moral leadership that was demonstrated by Dennis Hastert as Speaker of the House, and Rep. Bob Livingston before him and Speaker Newt Gingrich before him as they raced to reprimand and impeach President Bill Clinton.
It's the type of leadership the Duggars demonstrated in their crusade to paint transgender women as child molesters while they provided cover to a son who had committed that very transgression, failing to even get him proper counseling with a licensed therapist.
Huckabee's hypocrisy and the Duggars' admission tells us everything we need to know about those who claim their moral superiority while simultaneously pointing the finger of shame at others: they always have a skeleton in their closet.