Hire makes history
White house has 1st transgender staff member
WASHINGTON — The White House has appointed its first openly transgender staff member. Raffi Freedman-Gurspan has been hired as an outreach and recruitment director for presidential personnel in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, LGBT groups and the White House said Tuesday.
Freedman-Gurspan "demonstrates the kind of leadership this administration champions," Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said in an emailed statement confirming the appointment.
In a news release, National Center for Transgender Equality executive director Mara Keisling said: "President Obama has long said he wants his administration to look like the American people. I have understood this to include transgender Americans. A transgender person was inevitably going to work in the White House."
Washington Post