"We have made a record number of openly LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender) appointments and we are confident that this number will only continue to grow."ĭison's group lists 124 of the appointees on its website. "He is committed to appointing highly qualified individuals for each post," Inouye said. He said Obama "is proud that his appointments reflect the diversity of the American public." White House spokesman Shin Inouye confirmed the record number, saying Obama has hired more gay officials than the Clinton and George W. And David Huebner, ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, is the third openly gay ambassador in U.S. Obama also named Amanda Simpson, the first openly transgender appointee, as a senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department. Other prominent names include Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Fred Hochberg, chairman of the Export-Import Bank. While that hasn't happened - yet - Obama did appoint the highest-ranking gay official ever when he named John Berry as director of the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the nation's 1.9 million federal workers. Gay activists, among Obama's strongest supporters, had hoped he would be the first to appoint an openly gay Cabinet secretary. "It's a simple affirmation of the American ideal that what matters is how you do your job and not who you are." "It's both significant and rather ordinary," said Michael Cole, a spokesman for the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign.
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Jesse Helms, R-N.C., who denounced her as a "militant extremist." It's a far cry from the 1993 furor surrounding Clinton's nomination of then-San Francisco Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg as assistant secretary for Housing and Urban Development.Īchtenberg was the first openly gay official to serve at such a senior level, and she won confirmation despite contentious hearings and Sen.
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In a sign of how times have changed, few of the appointees - about two dozen required Senate confirmation - have stirred much controversy. The pace of appointments has helped to ease broader disappointment among gay rights groups that Obama has not acted more quickly on other fronts, such as ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military. "From everything we hear from inside the administration, they wanted this to be part of their efforts at diversity," said Denis Dison, spokesman for the Presidential Appointments Project of the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute.
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Gay activists say the estimate of more than 150 appointments so far - from agency heads and commission members to policy officials and senior staffers - surpasses the previous high of about 140 reached during two full terms under President Bill Clinton. Less than halfway through his first term, President Barack Obama has appointed more openly gay officials than any other president in history.