In a Washington Post column published on Thursday, Caitlyn Jenner said she regrets supporting President Donald Trump.
Jenner, 68, has been an open Trump supporter and said she had intentions of working with the President to improve conditions for the LGBTQ community. Jenner, who transitioned in 2015, said she was hoping to use her privilege to evoke change.
“Following Trump’s election as president, I saw fertile ground for change within the Republican Party on LGBTQ issues,” she wrote in the Thursday column. “I believed I could work within the party and the Trump administration to shift the minds of those who most needed shifting.”
She said she felt optimistic about Trump’s attitudes towards the community when he claimed his support for “this valuable, vulnerable community” during the Republican National Convention in July 2016.
“Sadly, I was wrong,” wrote Jenner in The Washington Post piece. “Believing that I could work with Trump and his administration to support our community was a mistake.”
Jenner’s support for Trump in previous years was met with skepticism and critique from other members of the LGBTQ community. But, as Jenner wrote in Thursday’s column, she realized that President Trump has relentlessly attacked the community, “ignored our humanity,” “made trans people into political pawns.”
“I do not support Trump. I must learn from my mistakes and move forward,” Jenner wrote. “The world needs to hear us. The world needs to know us. We will not be erased.”
Read Jenner’s entire column here.