Rick Santorum surprised many people earlier this month when he offered up an uncharacteristically progressive quote on Bruce Jenner's transition as a woman. "If he says he’s a woman, then he’s a woman," he told BuzzFeed. "My responsibility as a human being is to love and accept everybody. Not to criticize people for who they are."
It was glorious and simple. Bruce Jenner is a woman and deserves love and respect. But Santorum had to go and make further comments to ruin it. In a Concord News Radio interview yesterday he maintained that Jenner deserves love and respect (yes!) but insisted Jenner is "obviously and biologically" not a woman (no!).
"If Bruce Jenner says he’s woman then I’m not gonna argue with him," he said. "I know what obviously and biologically he is. That doesn’t change by himself identifying himself. His genetics and DNA isn’t changing, but out of respect, as you said, I’m not gonna argue if Bruce Jenner’s a woman with Bruce Jenner. I’m gonna treat him with dignity and respect and that’s what I said."
Yes, biology dictates that Jenner will maintain the DNA of a man even though he identifies as a woman. But that's not the point. It's so obvious and irrelevant that it's not worth mentioning. Gender identity isn't dictated by the sex you're born as. And hanging onto the biology thing is at best ignorant and at worst refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of transgenderism.
Santorum should have stopped when he was ahead.
