My $0.02

Caitlyn.

I still have the Bruce Jenner interview on the dvr.  I still have not watched it.

An often-repeated show business cliche is any publicity is good publicity.  A variety of jokes have to do with a famous actor getting caught perpetrating a heinous crime and telling the cop the correct spelling of his name.

I'm not so sure.

More attention to transpeople will bring more scrutiny.  More scrutiny means more bigots emboldened to call you out when you're all you're doing is, say, using the appropriate restroom.

The attention will lead to more ignorant people thinking their either smart or funny.  I'm not sure which Mike Huckabee, the clown who would be president, thought he was when he said, “Now I wish somebody had told me when I was in high school, that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in P.E. I’m pretty sure I would’ve found my feminine side and said, ‘Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today.'”

That remark says nothing about transpeople, by the way.  It says Mike Huckabee is a pervert and way back in high school he was a dirty-old-man in training.

His remark was pre-Jenner, by the way.  I don't know what prompted him, except for a deep-seated hatred.

It will change expectations.  People will consider the professionally made up, airbrushed, and photoshopped Caitlyn cover photo and wonder why we're not all bursting out of our corsets and looking half our calendar age.  They'll forget that they each know a hundred women who we look better or more passable than.

It may amplify homophobia.  Straight guys who look at some of the high-profile transbeauties are going to think they've lost their minds because their first reaction is "hot!" and their second is "wait... that's a guy" and they won't know how to handle that.  I'm afraid that will turn to anger and more crimes against transwomen for their problems.

I think long-term this will all be good.  And by this I mean more of us being visible, not necessarily the Jenner spotlight.  Light will banish the darkness.

Short-term I'm worried.  This is a big change in a country where 90% of the population say they've never met a transgender person.  I have no figures (or figure), but I'd guess that 100% of that 90% are wrong.

My gut tells me that going out is going to get riskier for a while.  I hope I'm wrong.

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