Caitlyn Jenner 'Declines' Award From St. John's TransNation Film Festival
- By
- Carlos Santoscoy
- | October 19, 2017
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.