Amanda Simpson Breaks a Transgender Glass Ceiling

by Michael Jones · 2010-01-04 01:36:00 -0800
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Amanda SimpsonIt's been a very good start to 2010 for President Obama, at least in the arena of LGBT rights. First came the official lifting of the HIV travel ban which has plagued the U.S. for twenty-two long and discriminatory years. Now comes word that his administration will make one of the first executive branch appointments ever to an openly transgender person.

That person is Amanda Simpson, with a resume as long and distinguished as her new boss (if not more so). Simpson was a former test pilot in the military. She has worked in the aerospace and defense industries for three decades, including a recent stint as Deputy Director in Advanced Technology Development for Raytheon -- a company where she worked doggedly to have her bosses add gender identity to the official Equal Opportunity Employment Policy. And in 2004, she was named one of the YWCA's Women on the Move.

Starting in 2010, she'll be the new Senior Technical Advisor to the Department of Commerce (incidentally the department that handles the 2010 Census). And from her perspective, while she's definitely breaking a big glass ceiling, she hopes this is just the beginning for the role of transgender folks in the federal government.

"As one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others," said Simpson.

Good leadership does just that -- it opens opportunities for others. And though the Obama administration has been hit hard by LGBT rights activists for certain issues (waffling on the Defense of Marriage Act, not jumping behind a full repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," for instance), one thing this administration has rocked the house -- er, rocked the White House -- at is appointing openly LGBT folks. Simpson is the latest, but the trend was set from the get go.

According to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, Obama has appointed close to 100 openly LGBT folks to his administration, which is a rocket-style pace that is set to eclipse even the Clinton administration (which appointed 140 openly LGBT folks over the span of the Clinton presidency). The 1990s are certainly different from the 2010s, which makes appointing LGBT folks a bit easier for Obama than it perhaps was for Clinton. But give Obama credit for doing good in making the federal government reflect the diversity of the country he's leading.

Now if we could just get Obama to break that ultimate glass ceiling -- nominating an openly LGBT person for a cabinent-level position ...

(Photo courtesy of Huff Post)

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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