Fox News contributor Caitlyn Jenner believes most Americans don’t have a problem with the LGBTQ community but feels brands like Bud Light and Target caused self-inflicted harm with their high-profile marketing fiascos.
"In the Bud Light case, and even in the Target case, they really tried to go so public with it that it just blew up," Jenner said in an interview with Fox News Digital. "When you throw it in somebody's face and you say, ‘You better go along with this,' people react."
Jenner, who came out as a transgender woman in 2015 at the age of 65, has been in the public eye for decades, becoming a household name as Olympic champion Bruce Jenner. During the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Montreal, Jenner captured the gold medal and set a world record in the decathlon. Jenner remained a key player in the cultural zeitgeist for years with familial ties to the Kardashian reality TV empire and has since emerged as arguably the most famous transgender woman in the world, although her ties to the GOP have often bothered other members of the LGBTQ community.
"Most people are very open-minded, and they have no problem with trans people. They have no problem with gay people. They have no problem with non-binary people," Jenner continued. "But if you take it, and you try to force it upon somebody… I think that's when people get upset."
Bud Light sales have plummeted since backlash to a promotional partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney has continued to haunt the company. Criticism from conservatives has been swift, and whether the brand can fully recover remains up in the air.
Target initially irked conservatives with Pride displays that featured items such as assorted children’s apparel and "tuck-friendly" women's swimsuits, but some in the LGBTQ community also became outraged when the displays were dialed back ahead of Pride Month.
"Everybody gets upset today, no matter what side of the story you're on, everybody gets upset," Jenner said, noting that social media has given everyone a voice to vent and complain.
"What bothers me more is why these companies think that it's going to be good for them to go woke," Jenner said. "Why these companies want to do that is beyond me."
Jenner said that Target’s controversial bathing suits are "pissing off a large part of society," and Bud Light’s pact with Mulvaney drew similar reaction.
"As people say, go woke, go broke," Jenner said. "We don't need to do that, and I would hope a lot of these companies learn a lesson and they do more traditional marketing. I mean, traditional marketing worked for a million years. It'll work again."
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Jenner, an entrepreneur herself, also has an assortment of children and stepchildren who are moguls in their own right, including daughter Kylie Jenner who owns a wildly popular cosmetics line. Jenner wouldn’t advise her kids, or anyone for that matter, to go "woke" in the business world.
"Just don't go down that road," Jenner said. "You're alienating a lot of the marketplace out there… stay in your lane. Know who you're marketing to, and market to those people."
Jenner said that Bud Light clearly didn’t know its marketplace before the disastrous Mulvaney promotion.
"It's not the group that is going to want a kind of, flamboyant trans woman out there pushing your product. That's not your customer," Jenner said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' 2024 presidential campaign and Twitter chief Elon Musk recently took aim at the Biden administration after the White House shared a video to social media celebrating the "LGBTQI+ Community" and "our kids" that are a part of it. Biden's remarks drew immense backlash on social media, with hundreds of users reminding the Biden administration that their children are not the government's kids.
Biden has also criticized bills that ban gender treatment for minors. Jenner, who questioned gender identity as a young boy but turned to sports to fit in, agrees with conservative critics of the LGBTQ community who don’t think it’s appropriate for children.
"Being trans or gender dysphoric, it is real, OK? But to push this on kids is absolutely wrong," Jenner said. "Let the kids be kids and leave our kids alone."
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Earlier this week, Missouri became the latest state to ban gender treatment for minors, following Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signing a similar bill into law last week. At least 20 states have now enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.
Jenner, a former California gubernatorial candidate who ran as a Republican, previously said she faced more backlash admitting she was a Republican than she did when she came out as a trans woman. Either way, Jenner has no regrets and said things are much simpler now.
"My life is very good. I wake up in the morning, and I just be myself all day long. I don't have to hide. I don't have to worry about what people say, and I just be myself. And this is who I am, and I respect other people's feelings," Jenner said.
"I obviously know that what I've done with my life, to live, might be somewhat controversial to some people. And that's OK. You know what? We don't have to hang out together," Jenner continued. "My life is, in a lot of ways, a lot easier now because I don't have to deal with so much stuff I had to deal with before. And that is secrecy, hiding, sneaking around. All of that stuff. I don't do any of that anymore."
Fox News’ Kyle Morris contributed to this report.
