Record number of LGBT staff in Obama administration
President Obama has already appointed more openly LGBT staffers to his administration than the administrations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton combined, according to Shin Inouye, director of specialty media in the White House communications office.
Inouye made the observation at a panel discussion about LGBT presidential appointees held last night at the National Press Club in Washington. The discussion was sponsored by the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Association and the Washington Blade.
Other appointees on the panel included Elaine Kaplan, General Counsel at the Office of Personnel Management, and Matt Nosanchuk, Senior Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.
Kaplan, who also worked in the Clinton administration, noted a different atmosphere for LGBT appointees under President Obama. ”There are a lot more of us and at higher levels,” Kaplan said. Inouye and Nosanchuck agreed LGBT staff were fully integrated into the administration at all levels, and that their presence meant that policy decisions more often take into account the possible affects on LGBT people and their families.
Nosanchuk pointed out that many out appointees came to the attention of administration officials through the LGBT community’s Presidential Appointments Project, a coalition effort of some 16 national LGBT groups that’s coordinated by the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute.
“This has always been the point of the Project–to make sure LGBT voices and perspectives are heard at the highest levels of the U.S. government,” said George Walker, a vice president at GLLI.
via GayPolitics.com
Source: gaypolitics.com
