L.G.B.T. conservatives argue that they are not “one-issue voters,” that while the rights of queer Americans are important, they are not the only factor. There are a lot of issues that constitute political identity, and as it turns out, some voters feel that their own rights are not the most urgent.

I admit that I really don’t get it. So in that spirit of “listening,” I called Caitlyn again.

She was driving her car — “a 1960 Austin-Healey bug-eyed Sprite” — to the shop. “If we don’t have a country,” she told me, “we don’t have L.G.B.T. issues.”

I wasn’t quite sure what she meant. So she went on: “It’s important that we have a thriving country. I want every trans person to get a job. I want a thriving economy. I don’t want massive government on top of everything we do.”

Why did she go to the inauguration? “I was working,” she said. “I had an objective when I went there to meet as many people and open as many doors as I possibly could, and I was able to accomplish that. Trump is really fine when it comes to these issues.”

Mike Pence, she said, “is a different story.” Given that he opposed the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and said that gay couples would cause a “societal collapse,” this seemed to me like an understatement.

“Pence was happy to see me,” she said. “In so many ways, we have a lot of things in common. I’m a Christian. I’m also a Republican, and I’m also trans. My faith played a very big role in what I’m doing. And I would love to explain my story to him.”

As I listened, I wondered whether L.G.B.T. rights really ought not to be the most conservative of causes. Above all else we want to be left alone, without interference, to live our lives with truth and grace. What could be more conservative than that?