The Politics of Being “Cait”: Caitlyn Jenner, Transphobia, and Parasocial Contact Effects on Transgender-Related Political Attitudes

• DOI: 10.1177/1532673X20906460
• Date: 01 September 2020
• Author: Barry Tadlock,Andrew R. Flores,Daniel C. Lewis,Jami K. Taylor,Donald P. Haider-Markel,Patrick R. Miller
• Published date: 01 September 2020
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X20906460

American Politics Research

2020, Vol. 48(5) 622 –634

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/1532673X20906460

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Article

Caitlyn Jenner is one of the best known openly transgender

celebrities in the United States (Lovelock, 2017). By 2015,

when she publicly confirmed that she was a transgender

woman, Jenner had enjoyed over 40 years of prominence

as an athlete, product spokesperson, and television star.

This disclosure was a high-profile story when, after sig-

nificant tabloid speculation, Jenner discussed her gender

identity with journalist Diane Sawyer, and appeared on the

cover of Vanity Fair under the headline “Call me Caitlyn”

(Bissinger, 2015).

Celebrities like Jenner are important in politics, both in

campaigns and issue advocacy (Harvey, 2017; West & Orman,

2003). However, Jenner’s political relevance differs from

more common forms of celebrity activism in that her mere act

of “coming out” could be seen as political. Identifying as a

member of a marginalized community increases its visibility,

and indeed the term transgender itself “refers to a collective

political identity” (Currah et al., 2006, p. xv). Her revelation

coincided with rising attention to transgender rights, includ-

ing several local referendums that year on nondiscrimination

ordinances that received substantial national media coverage

(Taylor et al., 2018). By coming out in that environment, cou-

pled with the fact that relatively few Americans report know-

ing a transgender person (Tadlock et al., 2017), Jenner was

positioned to be a familiar face representing a group whose

rights were increasingly salient but with whom most

Americans have limited personal experience.

In this research, we treat Jenner’s story as a case of para-

social contact—individuals forming “beliefs and attitudes

about people they know only through” mass media (Schiappa

et al., 2006, p. 20)—that may influence group-relevant atti-

tudes. Based on extant literature, we focus on the direct and

conditional effects of age and transphobia in predicting per-

ceptions of the Jenner story and how those perceptions

affected transgender rights policy attitudes. Counterintuitively,

we find that older respondents who were also more transpho-

bic were less likely to see her story as representing negative

social trends if they followed the story more closely and

were more likely to translate that evaluation into support for

pro-transgender policies.

906460APRXXX10.1177/1532673X20906460American Politics ResearchMiller et al.

research-article2020

1University of Kansas, Lawrence, USA

2American University, Washington, D.C., CA, USA

3Siena College, Loudonville, LA, USA

4Ohio University, Athens, USA

5University of Toledo, Toledo, USA

Corresponding Author:

Patrick R. Miller, University of Kansas, 1541 Lilac Lane, Lawrence, KS

66045-3177, USA.

Email: patrick.miller@ku.edu

The Politics of Being “Cait”: Caitlyn

Jenner, Transphobia, and Parasocial

Contact Effects on Transgender-Related

Political Attitudes

Patrick R. Miller1, Andrew R. Flores2, Donald P. Haider-Markel1,

Daniel C. Lewis3, Barry Tadlock4, and Jami K. Taylor5

Abstract

Celebrities saturate American culture and often become relevant in politics, yet political science has largely left unstudied

how celebrities affect mass political behavior. We focus on the 2015 story of Caitlyn Jenner revealing her transgender

identity. Using an original nationally representative survey from that summer, we examine whether following the Jenner story

and evaluations of its social significance affected attitudes toward transgender rights policies. Specifically, we examine how

age and transphobia interacted with engagement with the Jenner story to shape attitudes toward transgender rights. We

find, counterintuitively, that older respondents who were more transphobic were less likely to see her story as representing

negative social trends if they followed it in the media. Furthermore, more transphobic older respondents were more likely

to support pro-transgender policies if they viewed Jenner’s story less negatively. We then discuss the implications of our

findings for research on celebrity effects on politics and transgender rights.

Keywords

celebrities, Caitlyn Jenner, parasocial contact, transgender, transgender rights, transphobia