President Barack Obama continues to keep breaking some of the remaining bastions of heteronormative traditions by nominating the best men and women for the highest offices in Government who just happen to be gay or transgender. In this past week the President has proposed that Eric Fanning become the 22nd United States Secretary of the Army and when his appointment is confirmed by the Senate as expected, he will become the first openly gay head of any service in the U.S. military.
At the same time the White House has announced that the President has appointed the first openly transgender staff member to his team.
Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, a former policy adviser at the National Center for Transgender Equality, will serve as an outreach and recruitment director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel.
Also this week Amanda Simpson, who previously served as the the Executive Director of the U.S. Army Office of Energy Initiatives, was sworn in as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy and became the highest ranking openly transgender official in the Obama Administration.
It is literally just 4 years to the very day that the 17-year-old law that banned openly gay men, lesbians and bisexuals from military service was finally repealed. It’s remarkable progress thanks to the leadership of an exceptional President, and it will be even more wonderful when we reach a time when announcements like these are so commonplace that they don’t even rate a mention in the media.
