August 22, 2016
After Twitter Backlash, Bette Midler Apologizes for Caitlyn Jenner 'Joke'
READ TIME: 1 MIN.
Bette Midler found herself in a storm of Twitter backlash this weekend after tweeting about Caitlyn Jenner and the cancellation of the Olympic athlete's reality show "I Am Cait." Several Twitter users deemed the singer's remarks transphobic.
"Now that @IAmCait has been cancelled, will she go back to being Bruce?" Midler reportedly tweeted on Aug. 20. "Will Kris take him back? Do I smell a re-wedding?"
It didn't take long before the Twitter-verse lashed out against Midler, who has since deleted her tweet.
Taking to the social media platform Sunday, Midler issued an apology.
Nevertheless, Midler's tweet didn't work for transgender actress Alexandra Billings ("Transparent," "How to Get Away With Murder") who wrote an open letter to Midler for the Huffington Post, writing in part:
The danger of what you tweeted is your influence on public opinion and your blatant disregard for the Trans experience and a glaring lack of compassion towards a people you do not know. I am asking with as much openness as I can, to rethink what you put out in to the universe. I am forever with you in your love of nature and beauty, and in your constant quest of camp and art for art's sake, but I will not support you in your ignorance of my brothers and sisters as we still lay at the mercy of an under educated government bureaucracy and a misguided and sometimes lethal populous.
Read the full piece by clicking here.
Jenner has yet to respond to Midler.
