President Barack Obama appointed Raffi Freedman-Gurspan as the White House’s primary LGBT liaison on Monday. She is the first transgender person to serve in that role.
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, praised the move:
“Raffi is a great choice. President Obama has said he wants his administration to look like America, and they have moved to include trans Americans. Raffi’s skills and personality make her the exact right person for this important job.”
The Human Rights Network also had congratulatory remarks for both Freedman-Gurspan and the White House.
“HRC congratulates Freedman-Gurspan on this immense honor and looks forward to working with her and the Obama Administration.”
Freedman-Gurspan became the first transgender person to serve in the White House back in 2015. She was the outreach and recruitment director in the presidential personnel office.
In her new role, she will serve as the White House’s lead contact person for LGBT groups on a range of issues.
President Clinton created the liaison role in 1995. It was discontinued during the Bush Administration but brought back under Obama.
Before working in the White House, Freedman-Gurspan was the policy adviser for the National Center for Transgender Equality.
This move follows in Obama’s strong push toward making his office more inclusive.
In that regard, a Washington Post article stated not too long ago how Obama has led a “quiet transgender revolution.”
Obama has made it easier for people to change their sex on their social security card, or how it welcomed a bisexual filmmaker to show his film about the lives of transgender men and women serving in the military.
Obama also was the first President to say the word “transgender” during a State of the Union address in 2015.
Featured image courtesy of Ted Eytan via Wikimedia Commons under this Creative Commons License.
