The White House will meet with Transgender Activists Today

Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality

The White House makes huge strides by actively reaching out to Transgender leaders today. The meeting will discuss policy matters and basic issues that continue to beset the Trans community.

Washington Blade has the scoop:

Shin Inouye, a White House spokesperson, said the meeting, which is set to take place Friday at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, will include transgender leaders who work on federal policy.

“OPE routinely holds meetings with various stakeholders to discuss various policy issues,” Inouye said. “Friday’s meeting, like most OPE meetings, will be closed press and off the record.”

Additionally, Inouye said the meeting will be the first ever for the Office of Public Engagement where transgender issues are the sole focus of discussion.

“While transgender issues have been covered in previous OPE meetings, and transgender leaders have been included in other OPE meetings, this would be the first time OPE has held a meeting solely focused on transgender issues,” Inouye said.

Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said she plans to attend the meeting.

“This is the first president who has allowed trans people — really allowed LGBT people — to bring forward problems and then advocate for them,” Keisling said. “In the Bush administration, we couldn’t even do that. They wouldn’t even listen to us. They didn’t care what our problems were. In fact, they were making most of our problems.”

I am glad this is happening, however I hope that the attendees are representing a diverse group of Transgender leaders. There are many voices that need to be heard.

WATCH The White House Bullying Conference

Robert Gibbs is leaving the White House

Interesting smoke coming from the White House. CBS reports that Press Sec. Robert Gibbs is leaving his post.

Robert Gibbs is leaving the White House after serving as press secretary for two years.
"It's true," the Obama adviser confirmed to CBS News.

Gibbs will depart in February, and he plans to become an outside political adviser to President Obama. He will also give private sector speeches, according to the Associated Press.
No replacement has been named.

"He's had a six-year stretch now where basically he's been going 24/7 with relatively modest pay. I think it's natural for someone like Robert to want to step back for a second to reflect, retool and that, as a consequence, brings about both challenges and opportunities for the White House," President Obama told the New York Times.

On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that Gibbs was contemplating leaving the administration to create a private consulting business as part of Obama's 2012 reelection campaign.

source

Behind the Scenes Video: Signing the DADT Repeal

This is from the White House blog: