The Obama administration has hired its first openly transgender full-time member of staff, White House officials have confirmed.
Raffi Freedman-Gurspan started working as an outreach and recruitment director for presidential staff on August 18.
Her commitment to transgender rights reflects “the values of this administration,” a senior White House official said.
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“Raffi Freedman-Gurspan demonstrates the kind of leadership this administration champions,” said Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama.
Raffi Freedman-Gurspan previously worked as a policy adviser for the National Center for Transgender Equality (NTCE).
Her appointment to the White House has been hailed as an important step by key members of the LGBT community.
In the same time, the Department of Defense is reviewing its ban on transgender men and women from serving in the military, and the White House has said it welcomes that move.
The Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum will be located in Chicago, Illinois.
Chicago has beaten other two important cities for the president, New York City and Hawaii.
A site for the library is yet to be chosen, but the winning proposal will be “connected to” the University of Chicago, NBC reports.
Barack Obama was a law professor at the university and still has a home on the city’s South Side.
The library will store Barack Obama’s papers and help frame his legacy as president.
A formal announcement will be made the week after next, reports CBS.
It says President Barack Obama indicated he was leaning towards choosing his hometown in a recent phone call with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, once his closest adviser at the White House.
He met his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, when working at a law firm in the city in 1989.
The losing cities also have strong connections to the Obama story – he grew up in Hawaii and attended Columbia University in New York.
The other Chicago bid that completed the shortlist of four was from the University of Illinois.
The 13 presidential libraries – spanning from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush – are administered by the US National Archives.
Bill Clinton’s presidential library is in Little Rock and George W. Bush has one at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
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