‘Trans is not a costume’: Caitlyn Jenner Halloween outfits spark outrage

Retailers selling Caitlyn Jenner costumes for Halloween have sparked a social media firestorm in the US from critics who say the get-up insults transgender people and promotes stereotypes.

Jenner, a former Olympic gold medalist and reality TV star once known as Bruce, came out as transgender this year and introduced herself in a Vanity Fair cover story that earned international attention.

A change.org petition launched on Monday is demanding that Spirit Halloween, a costume company with over 1,100 locations in the United States and Canada, stop producing and selling the costume, which includes a brunette wig, shiny white padded bustier and shorts resembling the outfit Jenner wore in the Vanity Fair cover photo. The petition had about 4,600 signatures by Tuesday evening.

“Trans is not a costume. Even though Caitlyn is a public figure and I could understand someone wanting to celebrate her as a hero and as a public figure, this could definitely take on a transphobic vibe,” Addison Rose Vincent, an activist who started the petition, said in an interview.

The petition criticised the costume for making light of a community that faces serious challenges, including violence, suicide, homelessness and unemployment.

“To make a costume out of a marginalized identity reduces that person and community to a stereotype for privileged people to abuse,” Vincent, 22, wrote in the petition.