A gay White House employee offered his very first interviews to the LGBT press while Congress took one step forward and one step back on "don't ask, don't tell" repeal in 2010.
This week marked a first of sorts.
Brian Bond, the gay man who is deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement in the Obama administration, went on the record with an LGBT blogger — just one week after he also offered up a written Q&A to Q-Notes, a North Carolina-based LGBT outlet.
Pam Spaulding of PamsHouseBlend was the blogger who managed to snag Bond outside of the entirely controlled confines of a written interview. Not sure why all the love for the Tar Heel State — where Spaulding is also based — but it’s most notable because Bond has proven to be an almost invisible presence given his position in the Office of Public Engagement.
His sudden emergence leaves one wondering if administration officials sense they have a PR problem on their hands with LGBT Americans. Bond is not the highest-ranking gay official to go on record to date — John Berry, the director of Office of Personnel Management, has granted several interviews. But knowing what I do about how press-shy Bond is, I would be inclined to think he has been pushed into the spotlight by forces greater than himself.
What’s worth noting here is that none of Obama’s inner circle has agreed to an interview with the LGBT press yet, let alone the commander in chief himself — who has granted a series of interviews to other constituencies' news outlets.
During the interview Bond seemed acutely aware of the administration’s deficit there.
“I should be doing a better job of communicating some of the issues and how we're tackling certain issues out there, and I will certainly work on that,” he told Spaulding.
One
area where the visibility of LGBT issues did improve markedly this week was
on “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which took a central role in the
confirmation hearing of Clifford Stanley as undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
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