title: TRANSGENDER HIRED BY WHITE HOUSE IS FIRST EVER TO WORK THERE BUT IS HE/SHE THE MOST QUALIFIED FOR THE JOB?
text: Are we the mutation nation now? Is this person the most qualified for the job or does he/she just fit the agenda to diversify the White House?President Obama has made equality for the LGBT community a priority of his administration, and advocates praised the president for diversifying his White House. Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, who formerly served as a policy advisor at the National Center for Transgender Equality, has been hired as an outreach and recruitment director in the White House Office of Personnel. I am elated that Raffi Freedman-Gurspan will become the first openly transgender staff member at the White House. President Obama has long said he wants his Administration to look like the American people. I have understood this to include transgender Americans,  said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.  A transgender person was inevitably going to work in the White House. That the first transgender appointee is a transgender woman of color is itself significant. And that the first White House transgender appointee is of a friend is inspiring to me and to countless others who have been touched by Raffi s advocacy. 