The White House has appointed its first openly transgender staff member, officials have confirmed. Raffi Freedman-Gurspan began work this week as an outreach and recruitment director for presidential personnel.



Before working at the White House, she was a policy adviser for the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), an advocacy group which campaigns for transgender rights.

Freedman-Gurspan is not the first openly transgender person to work at the White House – that honor went to 22-year-old Sarah McBride, an American University senior who interned in the White House office of public engagement in 2013 – but she is the first to become full-time staff.

“Raffi Freedman-Gurspan demonstrates the kind of leadership this administration champions,” Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president, told the Guardian in a statement. “Her commitment to bettering the lives of transgender Americans, particularly transgender people of color and those in poverty, reflects the values of this administration.”



Maria Keisling, the executive director of the NCTE and Freedman-Gurspan’s previous employer, said that she was “elated” at the news.



“President Obama has long said he wants his administration to look like the American people,” Keisling said. “I have understood this to include transgender Americans. 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.”