--- title: White House Transgender: Raffi Freedman-Gurspan Hired description: The White House has hired its first openly transgender staffer. canonical: https://time.com/4001820/white-house-transgender/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-18T16:51:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:15:34.498Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Hires First Openly Transgender Staffer og:description: The latest in a series of moves by President Obama. og:url: https://time.com/4001820/white-house-transgender/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e3cdeda38deba7d/69885fd13c1639779745950f/white-house-transgender.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US President Barack Obama speaks before signing an Executive Order to protect LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) employees from workplace discrimination in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Hires First Openly Transgender Staffer twitter:description: The latest in a series of moves by President Obama. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e3cdeda38deba7d/69885fd13c1639779745950f/white-house-transgender.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Hires First Openly Transgender Staffer by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Aug 18, 2015 4:51 PM UTC  US President Barack Obama speaks before signing an Executive Order to protect LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) employees from workplace discrimination in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2014. US President Barack Obama speaks before signing an Executive Order to protect LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) employees from workplace discrimination in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2014.JEWEL SAMAD—AFP/Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Aug 18, 2015 4:51 PM UTC The White House has hired its first openly transgender staffer. Raffi Freedman-Gurspan was appointed outreach and recruitment director for presidential personnel, the White House announced Tuesday. She previously worked as a policy advisor at the National Center for Transgender Equality. Advocates for the LGBT community celebrated the move. In a statement, Wade Henderson, president and CEO at The Leadership Conference for Civil and Human rights, hailed the appointment as a “remarkable step-forward for the LGBT community.” “As the old saying goes ‘if you’re not in the room, then you can’t possibly be at the table,'” he said. “Our nation will be stronger with Freedman-Gurspan, an advocate from The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights coalition, both in the room and at the table as the first openly transgender White House staffer.” President Obama has taken other steps recently to acknowledge the transgender community. In January, he became the [first president to use the word “transgender”](http://time.com/3675798/state-union-transgender/) in a State of the Union speech. In April, he said he backs [banning the use of “conversion therapy”](http://time.com/3814732/white-house-conversion-therapy-youth/) on gay and transgender youths. And in July he [signed an executive order](http://time.com/3012789/lgbt-workers/) barring discrimination against transgender people working for government contractors. That same month, the Pentagon announced it [will lift a ban](http://time.com/3956512/transgender-military-service-ban-2/) on transgender troops. **Read Next:** [_Why Transgender People Are Being Murdered at a Historic Rate_](http://time.com/3999348/transgender-murders-2015/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4001820/white-house-transgender/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4001820/white-house-transgender/"},"headline":"White House Hires First Openly Transgender Staffer","datePublished":"2015-08-18T16:51:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:15:34.498Z","description":"The White House has hired its first openly transgender staffer.","url":"https://time.com/4001820/white-house-transgender/","keywords":["White House","LGBT","Transgender"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e3cdeda38deba7d/69885fd13c1639779745950f/white-house-transgender.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e3cdeda38deba7d/69885fd13c1639779745950f/white-house-transgender.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US President Barack Obama speaks before signing an Executive Order to protect LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) employees from workplace discrimination in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2014.","caption":"US President Barack Obama speaks before signing an Executive Order to protect LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) employees from workplace discrimination in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2014.","creditText":"JEWEL SAMAD—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4001820/white-house-transgender/","name":"White House Hires First Openly Transgender Staffer"}}]}] ```