White House Hires Its First Transgender Woman

 The White House has hired its first openly transgender member of staff.

Raffi Freedman-Gurspan has been named as outreach and recruitment director for presidential personnel in the Office of Personnel.

Born in Honduras and raised by a single mother, she has in the past been critical of some of the administration’s policies including the detention of undocumented transgender immigrants.

Previously a policy adviser for the National Centre for Transgender Equality, Ms Freedman-Gurspan was also the first openly transgender woman to work at the Massachusetts State House.

The appointment comes nearly two months after President Barack Obama was heckled by Jennicet Gutiérrez, an undocumented transgender immigrant, at a LGBT event at the White House.

It was an incident which caused embarrassment given the efforts of the Obama administration to reach out to the transgender community.

In his State of the Union address, Mr Obama urged Americans to condemn the persecution of transgender people across the world. He has also signed an executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating against employees on the basis of their sexual identity or orientation.

However campaigners estimate at least 16 transgender women have been murdered since the beginning of the year.

Ms Freedman-Gurspan has urged the Department of Justice and FBI take steps to track hate crimes involving transgender victims.

 Source: The Telegraph