The White House just announced that it has nominated Georgetown 
Law Center’s Professor Chai Feldblum as a Commissioner to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This is huge not only because Feldblum would be the first out lesbian or gay person on the EEOC (which, as Nan Hunter points out will gain particular significance when/if ENDA is enacted), but more generally because Feldblum is among the smartest and most experienced lawyers working on the administrative interpretation and enforcement of anti-discrimination laws.
Chai was at the center of the policy team that aided Congress and the first Bush Administration in the drafting of the Americans with Disabilities Act and its accompanying regulations and implementation, played a crucial role in the writing of the Ryan White CARE Act, has developed legal and legislative strategies to expand anti-discrimination protections for transgendered people, and has been a key player in the many-year effort to gain passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act which could add sexual orientation and gender identity protections to federal non-discrimination laws. Feldblum has fought efforts to remove the gender identity provisions from ENDA, a strategy urged by some, including Rep. Barney Frank, to gain broader support for the legislation.
Not incidentally, after serving as Legislative Counsel to the ACLU’s AIDS Project, Feldblum founded Georgetown’s Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic, a program designed to train students to become legislative lawyers. It is hard to imagine a more qualified appointment to the EEOC.
It’s also a delight to see a White House Press Release that uses the words lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender as something other than an epithet.
Obama Appoints First Openly Lesbian Commissioner to the EEOC http://ff.im/-89YNn
RT @sexgenderbody Obama Appoints First Openly Lesbian Commissioner to the EEOC http://ff.im/-89YNn
RT @sexgenderbody: Obama Appoints First Openly Lesbian Commissioner to the EEOC http://ff.im/-89YNn
RT @sexgenderbody: Obama Appoints First Openly Lesbian Commissioner to the EEOC http://ff.im/-89YNn
RT @WomensHealthNY: RT @sexgenderbody: Obama Appoints First Openly Lesbian Commissioner to the EEOC http://ff.im/-89YNn
RT @ShelbyKnox RT @WomensHealthNY RT @sexgenderbody: Obama Appoints First Openly #Lesbian Commissioner to the EEOC http://ff.im/-89YNn
RT @sexgenderbody Obama Appoints First Openly Lesbian Commissioner to the EEOC http://ff.im/-89YNn
Cool: RT @shelbyknox @WomensHealthNY @sexgenderbody: Obama Appoints First Openly Lesbian Commissioner to the EEOC http://ff.im/-89YNn
Genuinely curious – has there ever been a white house press that used the word gay, lesbian bisexual or transgender as an epithet??
Minor correction- Feldblum helped draft the ADA with the Bush I Administration, not the Clinton administration, although the Regs came later.
(@danwibg) Congratulations Chai Feldblum: Obama Appoints First Openly Lesbian Commissioner to the EEOC – http://shar.es/1oMa5
DC’s own! RT @danwibg Congratulations Chai Feldblum: Obama Appoints First Openly Lesbian Commissioner to the EEOC http://tinyurl.com/n54kut
[...] is a particularly well-qualified nominee to serve as an EEOC Commissioner, about which I have previously blogged. And the campaign to discredit her has been quite nasty. I have a post ready to go in which I [...]
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