Quiet concern
among some LGBT activists has shifted to a low rumble
over the fact that a majority of senior-level White House
staffers and cabinet posts have been announced and not
a single openly gay person is in the mix.
One gay Democrat
noted that the first tier of senior assistants to the
president had been chosen and 8 of 15 cabinet
secretaries have been announced and yet the
LGBT community still has no representation.
"Every
morning in the White House at 7:30 a.m. the senior staff
meets and I think it would be unfortunate if there
weren't a gay person in the room," said the
D.C. insider who agreed to speak on the condition of
anonymity.
Two factors in
particular make the absence even more glaring. First, most
other interest groups including African Americans, Latinos,
and women, already see themselves reflected in the
President's inner circle.
"I assume
they'll appoint a gay liaison, but I think it's really
important that people be represented all throughout the
government and not just as gay people," said
the insider. "It's important because it looks
like America."
The source said
LGBT folks inside the Beltway already saw red flags when
the transition co-chairs and advisory board members listed
on the website failed to include any members of the
gay community.
Another vexing
reality is that by many accounts on the Hill, the LGBT
community has one of the most well orchestrated processes
for presenting qualified gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender candidates to the Presidential Personnel
Project. The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund along with
the help of 10 other groups has already collected 1,400
resumes through their Presidential Appointments
Project and delivered a binder full of qualified
candidates to the transition team.
"Sources
on the transition say that this project is one of the best
organized efforts of any of the communities that have
projects," said Eric Stern, a San
Francisco-based attorney and political
operative who originally served on John
Edwards' LGBT steering committee and later
helped bring the bulk of LGBT Edwards
supporters into the Obama camp during the primary.
Victory Fund
spokesperson Denis Dison said the project started
collecting resumes in January of this year and the
process continues. He noted that about 3,000
appointments would be made overall, the vast majority
of which have yet to be made. But he shared the sense
of urgency about senior level positions at a time when most
Beltway types believe the cabinet will be settled
within the next two weeks.
"I think
there's a growing sense in this community that they
expect to be part of this administration in a very
substantial way," Dison said. "A lot of
people really do expect that in the very near future we
should have an openly LGBT cabinet secretary. But
obviously, there are throughout the administration,
opportunities for people to both serve and affect
policy."
No openly gay,
bisexual, or transgender person has ever served as a
cabinet secretary. Members of the community who are widely
considered to top the list for inclusion in the Obama
administration are Mary Beth Maxwell, founding
executive director of the advocacy
organization American Rights at Work, for
Secretary of Labor and John Berry, director of the
Smithsonian National Zoo and former executive director
of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, for
Secretary of the Interior. Other notables who may end up
with senior administration positions include Fred
Hochberg for the Small Business Administration and
Tobias Wolff who is a serious candidate for the
Justice Department but several sources say is also under
consideration for deputy White House counsel.
Hochberg, who is
on the Obama transition team and served in the Small
Business Administration during the Clinton administration,
declined to comment for this story, as did Tobias
Wolff, a prominent constitutional law scholar who
served as President-elect Obama's LGBT policy advisor
during the election.
Longtime activist
David Mixner speculated, "I really suspect that Fred
has a reasonable shot at being the first openly gay head of
an agency like the SBA. He not only did a great job
when he was there as deputy, he's continued his work
on micro-lending and all sorts of things."
The Obama press
office declined to comment for this story but an aide to
the transition noted, "We have several cabinet
appointments and senior level positions in the
administration that we still plan to announce."
The aide added that President-elect Obama's
"record in support of equal rights for the LGBT
community will continue when he is in the White
House."
To that point,
the anonymous DC insider did express optimism about future
appointments. "This is the kind of problem that's
easily fixable," he said. "But they need
to be called into account - the community needs to
stand up and say, 'We're part of the team here, we
helped you get elected and we need to be at the
table.'"
On a positive
note, Mixner observed that a number of the cabinet
secretaries who have already been announced have very strong
records in the LGBT community, including Janet
Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom
Daschle as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Hillary
Clinton as Secretary of State, and Bill Richardson as
Secretary of Commerce. "These are the people
who will make the appointments of a high-level in
sub-cabinet positions, if we're going to get any high-level
appointments," Mixner said.
