White House spokesmen have announced Raul Alvillar’s appointment as interim LGBT community liaison to the Obama Administration. The decision, released Wednesday, designates Alvillar as the temporary point of contact for LGBT individuals until the administration names a permanent liaison to the position.
The Washington Blade reports that Alvillar will step into the position held by LGBT liaison Brian Bond after Bond’s departure later this month for a post with the Democratic National Committee. White House spokesperson Shin Inouye explained that a full-time replacement liaison will be instated as of October 2011.
33-year-old Alvillar worked for several years as the Department of Housing and Urban Development congressional relations officer before joining the 2008 Obama campaign as a western political director specializing in LGBT outreach. He is currently employed as the associate director for public engagement at the Office of the Vice President.
HRC’s David Smith, who serves as the organization’s vice president of programs, noted that Alvillar “has been with President Obama since the earliest days of the campaign” – a quality that Winnie Stachelberg of the Center for American Progress believes will aid the LGBT community.
“He’s certainly got the ear of senior leadership in the White House, and it’s a good step,” she said. Stachelberg added that Alvillar is “someone who’s absolutely worked in a range of different positions, which I think will help him, and ultimately, help the community to navigate these times and continue the progress that we’ve made on LGBT issues in the past two-and-a-half years.”
Wednesday’s announcement omitted any details regarding modifications to the role Alvillar will inherit from Bond. Some LGBT advocates have suggested that a more senior LGBT adviser should be appointed to the position in Alvillar’s place in order to offer more in-depth and direct counsel to the president; but others maintain that Obama already has a senior LGBT leadership team in place to meet these needs, and that Alvillar’s qualifications are ideal for the administration’s current needs.
