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"Caitlyn Jenner you're trash," is the only Facebook video description Ashlee Marie Preston provided after posting her confrontation with the reality star in Los Angeles Saturday night, and she told TooFab she doesn't have any regrets.
Preston, a black transgender woman and activist who is seen giving Jenner a piece of her mind in the viral video (above), explained on Sunday over the phone that she felt compelled to confront Jenner inside the Los Angeles LGBT Center's Renberg Theatre because of Jenner's early support for Donald Trump, who signed a presidential memorandum Friday banning transgender military recruits.
"It was a call for hunting season," Preston told TooFab. "He announced to the world that trans people are sub-human ... and by continuing to endorse that administration ... you are complicit, you are problematic, you are dangerous, toxic and cancerous to the community, and I was not going to let [Jenner] off the hook."
"The issue is she formed a foundation, and I don't understand how can you give money to build us up while continuing to support an administration that wants to hurt us," Preston added. "You are not the one who is impacted by the choices and decisions you make. We are at 18 reported murders of transgender people this year."
Both Preston and Jenner were attending a performance of the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles' "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust" show. Preston, who was once a board member of the Los Angeles LGBT Center before stepping down, said inviting Jenner was "the most tone deaf thing" the executive leadership could have done the same weekend Trump made the ban -- which he announced on Twitter last month -- a reality.
Jenner's support for both the Republican party and Trump is no secret, though she recently ripped POTUS and distanced herself from him over the ban. Preston said she was initially supportive of Jenner, despite their political differences.
"She has literally lived this alternative identity her entire life, so there are a lot of facets of her ideology that are evolving as she is evolving," Preston told TooFab. "What I came to realize is that Caitlyn still operates through the cis hetero white male perspective ... the way she moves is still consistent with a cis hetero white man."
Preston said Jenner seemed upset after the confrontation and was being consoled by several other trans women in attendance in the LGBT Center's courtyard. While comments on the Facebook video of the confrontation prove not everyone agrees with Preston's approach to activism, she said there were a number of people at the event -- including members of the Trans Chorus LA -- that voiced appreciation for her actions. When TooFab asked Preston how she thinks Jenner can make a positive impact on the transgender community, she suggested the TV star that rose to fame as an Olympian and member of the Kardashian clan, start with taking accountability.
"First and foremost, accountability. She owes the community an apology for continuing to support an administration that has erased us from society," Preston said. "And once she has apologized and is taking feedback, instead of shrugging us off, when she can actually take that, then she should not show up to spaces designated for those impacted by the administration."
Preston shares a widely held position among the LGBT community that Jenner's experience as a transgender woman in America is radically different from that of transgender women of color.
"She should create opportunities for trans women of color," Preston said. "We really don't need her or want her, to be honest, but if she does want to be involved, set up a situation to give other trans women of color the spotlight. Give us the resources to save ourselves."
Preston, the first transgender editor-in-chief of Wear Your Voice magazine, fired back at critics accusing her of pursuing "five minutes of fame" by allowing a friend to film the confrontation with Jenner. According to the activist, who also confronted conservative personality Tomi Lahren at Politicon earlier this summer, capturing the clash on camera was for her own protection, because it would have been the word of a "black trans woman against Caitlyn Jenner."
"If she makes a false claim against you, you could be in trouble," Preston said.
"Some people felt the way I handled it was trashy, or for fame, but if I wanted the five minutes of fame, I would have just stayed friends with Caitlyn," Preston said. "Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I'd rather be stereotyped as a loud, angry black trans woman, because that's more effective than a dead one."
