The White House announced Raffi Freedman-Gurspan’s appointment on Tuesday. Freedman-Gurspan is an outreach and recruitment director for presidential personnel in the Office of Personnel. Transgender advocates say she is the first openly transgender official to serve in the White House.
"Raffi Freedman-Gurspan demonstrates the kind of leadership this Administration champions," declared Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama, in a statement. "Her commitment to bettering the lives of transgender Americans, particularly transgender people of color and those in poverty, reflects the values of this Administration."
Gurspan, who previously served as policy adviser for the National Center for Transgender Equality’s (NCTE) Racial & Economic Justice Initiative, will work as an outreach and recruitment director for presidential personnel in the office that recruits qualified candidates for service in departments and agencies across the government.
Her appointment marks the latest in a series of groundbreaking steps that the Obama administration has taken to advance LGBT equality – including signing an executive order that bars federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT employees; directing the military to end its ban on openly transgender service members; and endorsing equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.
"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."
