A Transgender Political First

by Michael Jones · 2009-09-08 04:21:00 UTC
Topics:

Tim Kaine

A transgender political glass ceiling is about to be busted wide open this week, with the official appointment of Babs Casbar Siperstein to as a member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).  Gov. Tim Kaine, the chair of the DNC, appointed Siperstein to fill one of the 75 at-large seats available on the DNC, making her the first openly transgender person ever to serve on a major national political committee.

Siperstein currently serves as President of the New Jersey chapter of Stonewall Democrats, and as a Vice-Chair with the New Jersey Democratic Party.  Or, in other words, she's darn qualified to be nominated to this position.

Gov. Kaine made the announcement this past weekend, and in addition to Siperstein, he also nominated five other LGBT people for at-large seats on the DNC.  Joining Siperstein will be Evan Low, a city councilmember from Campbell, California; Lupe Valdez, the sheriff of Dallas County, Texas; Earl Fowlkes, the President of the International Federation of Black Prides; Terry Bean, a real estate broker from Oregon and a former member of Barack Obama's National Finance Committee during the campaign; and Randi Weingarten, the President of the American Federation of Teachers.

Damn.  Talk about an all-star line-up of LGBT politicos.  And what a great way to start the Fall, by smashing political glass ceilings and seeing that LGBT people will have more seats than they've ever had before on the DNC.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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