President Obama has announced that Megan Smith will serve as the next U.S. chief technology officer (CTO) and assistant to the president, succeeding Todd Park. Bloomberg Businessweek reports that Smith, the former vice president at Google’s X lab, is the first woman, as well as openly lesbian, CTO. Previously, she was COO and CEO of…
In an op-ed for The Advocate, Ana Ma, COO and chief of staff of HRC, and Matthew McClellan, the executive director of the National Council of La Raza Action Fund, urge President Obama to take action on immigration reform. Ma and McClellan write, “Two of the most pressing civil rights issues facing our nation today…
A recent media question-and-answer session held by the White House via Tumblr to shed light on President Obama’s executive order requiring federal agencies and contractors to afford the same employment protections enjoyed by racial and other minorities to LGBT employees and applicants shows there is still a universe of work to be done in the…
Today, President Barack Obama presented the 2013 National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal to 22 recipients. The presentation took place in the White House East Room. First lady, Michelle Obama was also present. Quoting the late Maya Angelou the president began by saying, “’A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because…
Today, the White House released further amendments to Executive Order 11478, Equal Employment Opportunity in the Federal Government, and Executive Order 11246, Equal Employment Opportunity. Essentially the amendments added the words “gender identity” to the appropriate sentences of the Executive Orders. The Orders ensure that federal employees – who are already protected on the basis…
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today in a White House ceremony, President Obama signed a sweeping executive order protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers from job discrimination. The order, profoundly consequential in its own right, dramatically underscores President Obama’s own LGBT legacy of achievement, unmatched in history: three landmark pieces of legislation; 90 significant policy or…
America is built on the fundamental promise that if you work hard, and play by the rules, you can get ahead. But today, millions of Americans in most states in the country go to work every day fearing that they could lose their jobs simply because of who they are or who they love. No…
July 15, 2010, President Obama released the first comprehensive National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which envisions that “the United States will become a place where new HIV infections are rare and when they do occur, every person, regardless of age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, or socio-economic circumstance, will have unfettered access to high quality, life-extending care, free from stigma and…
NEW YORK —More than 50 legal scholars have strongly urged President Obama to resist calls for an overly broad religious exemption in a proposed executive order prohibiting sexual orientation and/or gender identity discrimination by federal contractors. The effort is being spearheaded by Columbia Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, as part of its recently…
WASHINGTON – Last night at the White House LGBT Pride Reception, President Obama announced he would be issuing an executive order to protect transgender federal employees from workplace discrimination. Once issued, it would expand upon an executive order from President Bill Clinton, which banned workplace discrimination among federal employees on the basis of sexual orientation. …
