President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris left office having led their administrations with maximum success. LGBTQ+ Historical appointees.
Stay up to date LGBTQ+ News and Politics. Sign up for The Advocate’s email newsletter.
About 15% of the administration’s appointees are LGBTQ+, more than any previous administration, according to tracking by the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute and the White House. This includes more federal judge and ambassador-level positions than ever before, 12 and 13 respectively, 43 Senate-confirmed positions, and multiple senior-level press secretaries. It is.
“Biden has tried to create an administration that looks like America,” said Annise Parker, president and CEO of the Victory Institute and its sister organization, the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund. Defender.
The Victory Institute provides training to current and prospective public servants who are members of the LGBTQ+ community, and the Victory Fund supports candidates running for elected office. Victory Institute is also home to the David Mixner Political Appointments Program, which has worked to increase LGBTQ+ political representation in presidential appointments since the Bill Clinton administration. The program is a coalition of more than 30 organizations working to identify qualified individuals to serve in presidential administrations.
“If we had a great person, we wanted them to be noticed. That’s all we asked for,” Parker said.
Parker said that in the Biden-Harris administration, Victory Institute had an active partner in the White House Office of Personnel, but that will likely not be the case in the second Donald Trump administration.
“We want to continue to introduce people,” she said, and Victory Institute plans to maintain a bank of resumes for those who have been disqualified. But she points out that few have expressed interest in working for the next administration, even during President Trump’s first term, and his team has been slow to respond.
“I don’t think we should expect anything close to the level of representation we saw under the Biden administration,” added Sean Meloy, Vice President of Political Programs at the Victory Fund.
Biden’s appointment included several firsts. Perhaps the best known is Pete Buttigieg, a gay man who served as Secretary of Transportation. He became the first confirmed LGBTQ+ Cabinet appointee in the Senate. Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, was the first transgender appointee in the Senate. Chantelle Wong, an Asian American lesbian, serves on the U.S. board of the Asian Development Bank and holds an ambassador-level position, making her the first LGBTQ+ woman and person of color to hold an ambassador-level position. Karine Jean-Pierre, a lesbian, is the first Black LGBTQ+ person to serve as White House press secretary. Roger Nyhas is a gay man who served as ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, and the first Native American from the LGBTQ+ community to do so. and Sean Skelly, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness, is the highest-ranking trans defense official in U.S. history.
They and other Biden administration officials will likely find many offers from the private sector and various levels of government. (Incidentally, federal judges are appointed for life.) Some Michigan Democrats are considering Buttigieg, who currently lives in the state, to run for governor in 2026, when Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer reaches term limits. Some people want to. Buttigieg recently said: detroit news He has not decided whether he is for or against running for governor.
Either way, Parker says Victory Labs ensures that retiring federal employees are well-positioned to find new employment. “We have been working on helping people who are leaving the Biden administration polish their resumes and look for opportunities,” she says. “We want to ensure that LGBT people are represented at all levels of government and business.”
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
