The White House Hires It’s First Transgender Staff Member

The White House has hired its first openly transgender staff member, officials said on Tuesday, marking the latest step in President Barack Obama’s public support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. The Obama administration announced it hired transgender activist Raffi Freedman-Gurspan as the new Outreach and Recruitment Director for the Office of Personnel on Tuesday.  The appointment was first reported by The Washington Post. [8]  Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, a transgender woman who has worked as a policy adviser for the National Center for Transgender Equality, will serve as outreach and recruitment director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. Freedman-Gurspan, 28, who in the past went by the name Rafael, was adopted from Honduras and grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts.  [9] He/She is a graduate of St. Olaf College with a degree in political science and Norwegian.  While in college she was in the Jewish Students Organization (JSO). [17]  According to Freedman-Gurspan’s LinkedIn she previously served as the legislative director to State Rep. Carl M. Sciortino Jr. in Boston, the LGBT liaison for the city of Somerville, Massachusetts, and as a legislative and policy staffer at the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition. [17] She lists human rights, LGBT rights, social justice movements and indigenous peoples in her interests section on her LinkedIn.  Freedman-Gurspan made history in Massachusetts, where she was the first transgender woman working at the Massachusetts State House. ‘Raffi is a role model,’ Massachusetts state Rep. Carl Sciortino Jr said in a statement.  ‘As the first out transgender woman working at the Massachusetts State House, she showed leadership and courage, and among her many contributions, was instrumental in helping pass the Transgender Equal Rights Law.’  David Stacey, head of government affairs for Human Rights Campaign (HRC), told ABC that Freedman-Gurspan ‘is a smart, quiet woman who is very thoughtful and very diplomatic.’  ‘It’s very illustrative of how she likes to listen first before she talks,’ said Stacey. [17]  She started at the White House while Mr. Obama is on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, set to return to Washington on Sunday. [24] Mara Kiesling, the executive director of National Center of Transgender Equality, said she was ‘elated’ about Freedman-Gurspan’s appointment. [17]  President Obama has long said he wants his Administration to look like the American people. I have understood this to include transgender Americans,’ said Kiesling.  ‘A transgender person was inevitably going to work in the White House. That the first transgender appointee is a transgender woman of color is itself significant.’[17] [23]

“Her commitment to bettering the lives of transgender Americans, particularly transgender people of color and those in poverty, reflects the values of this administration,” Obama’s senior advisor Valerie Jarrett said, adding that Gurspan’s appointment “demonstrates the kind of leadership this administration champions.”The symbolic move is part of Mr. Obama’s effort to advance sexual and gender-minority rights concerns during his time in office. Mr. Obama has increasingly taken action on the concerns of transgender Americans, which have long been treated as peripheral to the broader gay rights movement. He’s taken steps, including barring discrimination against transgender government employees, and his administration has advanced efforts to allow transgender military personnel to serve openly.  [24] In April, the Obama administration took the high profile step of designating a gender-neutral restroom in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is near the White House and home to many staff offices and meetings.  That same month, an executive order went into effect prohibiting companies that contract with the federal government from discriminating against transgender and gay employees.  In June, President Barack Obama applauded Caitlyn Jenner’s public transition to life as a woman. [2] [3] Advocates hailed her appointment as an important step for the LGBT community and for ensuring that the federal government includes the voices and experiences of all Americans. [2] “As the first openly transgender person to work for the White House, Raffi’s appointment is another important step toward ensuring our federal government fully includes the voices and experiences of our communities,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights. “We’re confident that Raffi will continue the Obama Administration’s strong record of appointing qualified openly LGBT public servants to positions across the federal government.” [2] Aisha Moodie-Mills, president of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Institute, celebrated the appointment for its historical merit. “Our government works best when it reflects the reality of who we are as Americans,” she said. “For the first time in history, a transgender American will serve the president as a member of the White House staff. We’re celebrating because this is an important milestone for the transgender community, but we’re also thrilled that Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, an incredibly smart, talented, and committed professional, will now be working for the American people.” [13] Carl Sciortino Jr., Executive Director of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, also chimed in on the appointment, reflecting on Freedman-Gurspan’s history in the Bay State. “Raffi is a role model,” he said. “I am proud to see her continue to lead by example, as she takes her voice and her passion to the White House. Her hiring is a symbol of progress for the transgender community, but without a doubt I know it will be her skill and hard work that will benefit many.” [13]

The appointment follows several other transgender hires in the administration, including at the Defense Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.  [8] Dylan Orr was the first-ever transgender presidential political appointee in 2009, serving as a special assistant for the Labor Department’s Office of Disability Employment Policy. The following year, Amanda Simpson became the first openly transgender female political appointee when she became the senior technical adviser to the Commerce Department. [22]  Amanda Simpson was the first transgender woman so honored, appointed to the Commerce Department in 2010. She now works as the Executive Director at the U.S. Army Office of Energy Initiatives.  And this past June, Shannon Price Minter, a trans man and legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, was appointed to President Obama’s Commission on White House Fellowships. [13]

While Mr. Obama’s policies have won accolades from gay rights activists, he has faced criticism for not doing enough on transgender issues. During his remarks in June at the White House for an event celebrating Gay Pride Month, Mr. Obama was heckled by a transgender attendee.  Still, the president is seen by transgender rights activists as one of their biggest champions, particularly during his second term.  “President Obama has long said he wants his administration to look like the American people,” NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling said in a statement on the hiring of Ms. Freedman-Gurspan. “I have understood this to include transgender Americans.” [24]

Kit Daniels

Like Kit Daniels from Infowars.com had noted, “the White House claims the hiring is part of Obama’s effort to advance “gender-minority rights,” but in reality the Obama administration is hijacking the LGBT movement to break up the nuclear-family model to encourage individuals to be more supportive – and dependent – on the government.” [1]  Think about it this way: people generally hold more allegiance to their own families than they do to politicians, and, as government grows at the expense of individual liberties, politicians have to compensate for that by scamming the public into submission.  But how do they do that? By encouraging the public to feel a deeper connection to political figures, such as Obama for example, than their own families.  [1] And because many in the LGBT community are unfortunately shunned by their closest relatives, it’s easy for Obama to exploit them for his dystopian agenda that has little to do with genuine concerns about gay rights.  [1] “All their ties with the past — friends, family, traditional decencies and pieties — have been severed,” establishment insider Aldous Huxley said about such an exploited public in his essay Brave New World Revisited. “They are new men [and women], re-created in the im­age of their new god [the government] and totally dedicated to his service.”  Interestingly, in his 1932 novel Brave New World, Huxley anticipated a future society that is centrally controlled by a powerful government through the use of various techniques such as the destruction of the family, which is precisely what’s going on today. [1] “As political and economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends compensatingly to increase,” he wrote. “And the dictator … will do well to encourage that freedom.”  In conjunction with the freedom to daydream under the influence of dope and movies and the radio, it will help to reconcile his subjects to the servitude which is their fate.