In the summer of last year, we were thrilled to see that the White House had hired its first transgender staffer in Raffi Freedman-Gurspan. Now, it seems that Freedman-Gurspan is continuing to move up, having been promoted into a new position.
According to BuzzFeed, Freedman-Gurspan now the Outreach & Recruitment Director for Presidential Personnel and Associate Director for Public Engagement – making her the point person at the White House for LGBTQ+ groups on all issues, replacing Aditi Hardikar in the position, who left the post to join Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Freedman-Gurspan’s more than qualified for the job, as she was a policy adviser at the National Center for Transgender Equality and a legislative director in the Massachusetts House of Representatives before joining the White House staff.
People who know her from that space are thrilled to see her moving up in this way. Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said:
Raffi is a great choice. President Obama has said he wants his administration to look like America, and they have moved to include trans Americans. Raffi’s skills and personality make her the exact right person for this important job.
Meanwhile, the Senior VP of Policy and Political Affairs for the Human Rights Campaign, JoDee Winterhof, had this to say:
We believe it is a tremendous decision by the White House to recognize Raffi’s leadership as well as the importance of having transgender leadership in an important role for the community.
And we here at TMS are looking forward to watching as Freedman-Gurspan continues to do great things!
(image via YouTube screencap)
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