Amanda Simpson, Transgender Candidate, Appointed To Commerce Post

President Obama has appointed Amanda Simpson, a transgender woman, to be the Senior Technical Adviser to the Commerce Department.

"I'm truly honored to have received this appointment and am eager and excited about this opportunity that is before me," Simpson said in a statement. "As one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others."

Simpson -- a former test pilot and 2004 YWCA "Woman On The Move" -- has been active in the aerospace and defense industry for the past 30 years. She most recently served as Deputy Director in Advanced Technology Development for Raytheon, where she transitioned from male to female.

In the past decade, Simpson has been highly active in GLBT issues. In 2005, she successfully worked to have Raytheon adopt gender identity into its Equal Employment Opportunity Policy. That same year, she ran unsuccessfully for the Arizona House of Representatives.

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Comments

[lockDown]

08:14 AM on 01/06/2010

So she's a man. That's how God made her. I refuse to call a man a woman. If so, Michael Jackson was Caucasian.

Obama will be a 1 term president at this rate. He needs to concentrate on jobs and renewing the economy instead of trying to please the world and failing miserably.

Hillary, please run again! I'll vote for you.

[sagoddess]

06:28 PM on 01/06/2010

I like how people say they know what God is thinking and putting word in his/her/its mouth. Really you know what God's great plan for us is? Really!

I think not.

How do you know that God did make her a woman in a man's body so she would undergo transgender surgery to teach people how to look beyond the physical to the soul. Have you every though about that.

Obviously not.

And if this was a test by God then you have fail because you are caught up in your own personal view on gender roles. Hopefully you are not the 1 in 60 with a gender DNA glitch that will throw your gender identy into question or one of your children.

There are men who are born look physically male with the gentials of a female and their are females born with the gentials of males every day. Remember the south African runner who was in the flap about gender she was physically born a female including the gentials but her DNA shows that she was both male and female.

Therefore how do you know that Amanda was not born with the cromosons of a female while her outside was male. So due to a generic bith defect you want to be punished her and not allowed to correct the defect while every other birth defect can be operated on to correct it? Bit narrow minded aren't you?

[EmmaJ76]

07:22 AM on 01/08/2010

Well said sagoddess

[ladyga]

02:13 PM on 01/10/2010

According to your logic, God has therefore created all birth defects, childhood illnesses and suffering on purpose? I'm glad I don't know or worship any such hateful God. Its really sad that you, and others like you, do.

Jesus did NOT teach people to hate! In fact, he said the opposite.

[PotomacOracle]

08:48 PM on 01/05/2010

Ya, you go girl.

Its not the cover its the character. it's the mind and the desie to contribute. Its the right to be you so that you can help us the way you, and only you, can determine.

You go girl.

[wimwack1]

06:45 PM on 01/05/2010

As a hetero guy...I gotta admit that she is pretty in the pic!

[EmmaJ76]

06:06 AM on 01/06/2010

She is all woman you know.

[rm10011]

03:00 PM on 01/05/2010

Bravo to Amanda!

And to those of you who are a little uncertain of the definition of transgender......it usually means someone who has undergone or is in the process of undergoing gender "re-assignment" surgery.

[EmmaJ76]

06:07 AM on 01/06/2010

Well said on all accounts.

[rcozad]

12:59 PM on 01/05/2010

I am from Arizona and have met Amanda on a few occasions. She is lights out smart and as you will tell soon unbelievably brave! The state of Arizona has fallen under a complete domination by the most extreme elements of the Republican far right wing! Amanda saw it coming and tried to stop it, and unfortunately- failed . Our state is in such a horrible condition now owing to the ideological zeal of the neoconservatives that we can only look upon the third world refugee camps with envy! When the US is willing to spend BILLIONS on building schools and hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan we cant maintain ours, or pay teachers a living wage, repair our roads and bridges, or provide medical care to our children! I wish Amanda only the very best, and now that Obama has taken away our governor he has also taken away one of our leading voices for progress and sanity in government, Obama please, go pick on someone else!

[morgan1]

06:21 AM on 01/06/2010

I am with you. Obama has a way of losing smart people who have minds of their own and want real CHANGE for everyone across the board. I am proud that she was picked but as I have stated elsewhere, I will be stunned if she is not forced out, or quits in disgust. You will have her again. And if Obama's history speaks for itself, that will occur very soon.

[SallieParker]

11:23 AM on 01/05/2010

"Transgender" usually means a middle-aged male transvestite. Is that what this appointee is, or is she a woman? I suspect the latter.

[Micki Pacific]

01:08 PM on 01/05/2010

"Transgender" is an umbrella term. underneath that umbrella is a wide diversity of human gender expression, from AIS women who are born chromosonally XY, but unable to process androgens, to people born with both (or some variation of both) gender charaterisitcs, to those who are born with a gender identity that is incongruent with their physical bodies, and many other intersexed conditions that can easily be researched on google.
Many times a person may not even know that they have one or another of these conditions until they go to a fertility clinic. Some recent estimates are that one in sixty people have some form of gender variation. Amanda is a woman who had to undergo some form of transition to align her physical body with her gender identity.

[EmmaJ76]

04:16 PM on 01/05/2010

No Sally transgender is a term used to encompass all of the community - transvestites, transexuals, crossdressers - all different, all under the TG label.

Amanda is a transexual - she has had surgery to gender reassign, and is not her prederred gender.

And way to go on the stereotypes concerning transvestites also.

[ConjureMan]

11:01 AM on 01/05/2010

And then obama looks at Emanuel, and says, "That ought to shut'em up for a few months." What'cha gonna' do bout DOMA & DADT big fella?

[usamade]

10:27 AM on 01/05/2010

Ok call me stupid but I don't get it. Was she born a man but acting a woman or the other way around?

[EmmaJ76]

04:17 PM on 01/05/2010

She was born a man, but had gender dysphoria which means she knew she was born in the wrong body so she had hormone treatment and gender reassignment surgery to become the correct gender for herself - a woman. She is a woman.

[Micki Pacific]

09:25 AM on 01/05/2010

As a woman who has had a trans experience it is encouraing to many of us who have worked for decades to see this news. 20 years ago we could have never dreamed that we would see a white house appointment, yet here it is.
I understand that her gender transition has no bearing on her qualifications, and also look forward to the day when trans inclusiveness has reached a point that labels can be done away with. But for today allow us to celebrate the long years of advocacy, education, and struggle that it has taken to get to this point.
My hope is that this will set a new tone and standard in hiring practices and begin to heal the disparity that has been endured for far too long in this country.
The deepest encouragement is in the supportive comments posted here. Definitely priceless!

[Political Conservative]

09:03 AM on 01/05/2010

I have a question. In reading these posts, people are saying that Transgender people are being discriminated against when applying for jobs. How does an employer know that a person is a transgender person?

[Joel Redman]

09:28 AM on 01/05/2010

There is nearly always an interview process. Most trans people, particularly during and shortly after transition are easily identifiable.

[Micki Pacific]

09:34 AM on 01/05/2010

We usually make the difficult decision to disclose it up front so that there is no confusion when work history, references, etc. are researched.

[seawolf77]

08:03 AM on 01/05/2010

Republicans will NEVER admit they don;t know what's normal. Let's face it they are insulted by the labeling on a dryer's controls.

[EbonBear]

03:51 AM on 01/05/2010

This shouldn't be a story. It's a sad indication of how much work there is still to do that it is.

[jukesgrrl]

03:16 AM on 01/05/2010

Anyone who has ever met Amanda Simpson -- and I have -- will come away with the feeling that she is intelligent, hardworking, and dedicated to her liberal Democratic beliefs. Her sexual identification is of little interest, other than the fact it will occur to you that she could kick your ass.

[PotomacOracle]

08:57 PM on 01/05/2010

Ya, and you just got fanned.

When are the "phobics" going to get it. It's so much more courageous to love someone than to hate anyone.

[Emucrat]

02:53 AM on 01/05/2010

Don't blame me, but I think she is the most beautiful woman I know currently in politics. And I have this feeling that she is very liberal. :-)

[BruceHNV]

01:49 AM on 01/05/2010

That this is even news demonstrates how far we have to go.

Her gender identity is news the same way my weight and hair color are.

In other words, not.

[LeftLeanWing]

02:10 AM on 01/05/2010

Trailblazers are always News...... the 2nd and 3rd and 4th will be less so.

[cal5000]

02:11 AM on 01/05/2010

Not really. Her being hired is huge for transgender people.

These things go very slowly in reality in this country--minorities know this very well.

It shouldnt matter but it does--and no one should take that away from the community which has steadily attacked Obama since the election even though he is doing more for them than any POTUS ever.

Good for her,

Best of luck LGBT. Keep pushing forward.