Caitlyn Jenner at 28th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party.
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Caitlyn Jenner’s SUPER Relatable Story About … Private Hangar Owners Fleeing Homeless People

Most people don't have a private hangar, Caitlyn.
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Lyra Hale
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Published: May 6, 2021 03:29 pm

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Caitlyn Jenner, Olympian and transgender woman running for governor, visited Fox News’ Sean Hannity this past Wednesday in an effort to get her voice out there and start shaping the kind of political leader she hopes to one day be. What ended up happening instead was a contradictory, bland, and privileged interview where I still don’t know anything about Jenner or what she stands for. But the pièce de résistance of her performance on Hannity came when Jenner told a story about a friend who was leaving California:

Oh, no! How tragic! Let me whip out the world’s smallest violin for both of them. For one, how sad that someone with their own personal hangar had to pack it up themselves. The audacity! Secondly, what better place to talk about the hardships that homeless people are going through than from your own personal hangar that could support entire families with the value they hold they hold inside of just one of them.

Also, how sad for that friend of Jenner’s to have to see homeless people! It’s not like someone rich enough to own a hangar can help the homeless population in their community. Nah. That wouldn’t make sense to them. What does make sense though is moving to Sedona, Arizona because they possibly couldn’t have their own homelessness problems where one in every 184 Arizonians is homeless? Nah.

But seriously and with sarcasm set aside, did Jenner really think that she was going to connect with her possible future constituents by showing her privilege? Because the only people that connected with that story are those who have the money and power to change the lives of the homeless population in their area instead of skipping town and hoping to rid themselves of having to see homeless people.

Well, I’ve got a news flash for Jenner and her hangar friends. Homelessness is a universal problem that can’t be solved, cured, or helped by flying off to another state. Ignorance and privilege does nothing but separate the rich from the poor, with the former continuing to think they’re better than the latter. And it’s an outrage that those with money don’t deem it necessary to help those in need.

Instead, we have out-of-touch and wannabe politicians who perpetually live in their own bubble, ignorant of the fact that homelessness isn’t something that homeless people like. Take it from someone who worked with homeless people for years. They want kindness, respect, a roof over their heads, and a whole slew of other things that assert that no matter what, they’re still human.

This is especially true when you take into consideration how much the world has changed since COVID-19 came on the scene and how many families have been displaced. Homeless people aren’t the scourge of towns and cities of the United States who have a penchant for violence, drugs, death, and so many other illegal things. They are human beings and families who have been displaced and need help.

Ignoring them and flying away shows that they don’t care to be a solution to the problem. They only care about what they experience, the privileges they have, and the belief where they think they can just shuffle around responsibility for the homeless because it can’t be that bad, can it? It is. Federal reports estimate that California saw a 7% increase in homelessness from 2019 to the beginning of 20202, bringing the total to about 161,548 homeless people in the state as of January 2020, before the pandemic even hit.

The number of homeless people has absolutely grown since that time, and it’s set to increase more now that a federal judge threw out the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nationwide moratorium on evictions. Also, take into consideration that The White House estimates 1 in 5 renters had delinquent debt in January, with the CDC then saying that 4 million adults feared eviction, according to Reuters.

What these people need, what Americans need, is someone who understands that vulnerable citizens need empathy and assistance instead of another example of how stark the differences are between the rich and the poor in 2021. Caitlyn Jenner doesn’t understand that, and she never will because she looks at the world through privilege-colored glasses. And I’m not the only one who thinks that.

(image: Michael Train/AFP via Getty)

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Image of Lyra Hale
Lyra Hale
Lyra (She/Her) is a queer Latinx writer who stans badass women in movies, TV shows, and books. She loves crafting, tostones, and speculating all over queer media. And when not writing she's scrolling through TikTok or rebuilding her book collection.
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