President Barack Obama has appointed the first openly transgender White House staff member, according to an announcement made on Tuesday.
Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, a former policy adviser at the National Center for Transgender Equality, will serve as an outreach and recruitment director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel.
Community leaders and advocates lauded the administration’s decision and called Freedman-Gurspan a role model, praising her work to empower members of the LGBT community.